Clarity Low Speed 'Music'?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ken7
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 44
  • Views Views 22K
K

Ken7

Active Member
First off, thanks to JDonalds for linking to this site over at the Prius forums. It's hard to find, at this point, any real discussions on the new Clarity.

So my first post revolves around the Clarity emitting 'music' (for the lack of a better word) as you travel at speeds below 10-12mph. I was actually not aware of this until my wife kept asking 'what's that music I hear?', as she exited the car and I pulled into the garage. I initially dismissed it as her just hearing things.

However one day, as I rolled down the window while pulling into the garage, I could clearly hear these tones the car was producing as I moved at slow speed into the garage. As soon as I'd stop, the tones would stop. Most drivers would be unaware of these tones since they're quite low and it was really the walls of the garage that amplified the tones, making them clearly audible.

There's either nothing relating to this in the manual, or I overlooked it. I seemed to recall reading something about Canadian Claritys having this, but I'm unaware of any U.S. federal laws requiring it. My 2017 Tesla S doesn't have this and my Clarity was bought in N.Y.
 
Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System - Alerts pedestrians that a vehicle is approaching when the vehicle speed is around 12 mph (20 km/h) or less. page 393

The Gen 2 Volt had more of a white noise ish sound. Some found it disturbing and pulled the fuse. Others were experimenting with replacing the hardware and/or software or firmware sound files for custom noises. There was a discussion of possible liability of hitting someone while running "silent" with no resolution. The Clarity manual says the Canadian version has a button to turn the pedestrian warning "song" off.

I've had some tire issues (self inflicted, long story). The first time I was listening closely pulling into the garage, I thought, oh know, the first installer (long story) must have left something binding. Then I realized it was the Honda equivalent of the pedestrian warning noise!
 
Last edited:
Thanks Tiralc, I must have missed that in the manual. At least I know I don't have a car that should have wound up in Canada! ;)

I'd be tempted to pull the fuse too if I knew which fuse controlled it. As I said, the only time I hear it is if I have the windows open (that doesn't happen much in NY winters) and pulling into the garage. Still a bit annoying, but in the scheme of things, no biggie.
 
My manual must be different because it only has 162 pages. The Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System* is listed on page 96, but it has that asterisk at the end, and at the bottom of the page it says, * Canadian models.
 
For some reason there are several manuals (link to Owner's manual and Owner's guide). Maybe one was intended to be more of an overview?
 
Page 195 in the owners manual talks about the system setting the climate system based on which key fob was used to open the doors. This is with the Touring model only. I thought that could be the culprit with my climate problem, tested it, no joy.

Strange that Honda would set the climate system for cars with the driver's fob, moves the driver's seat, but they didn't include adjusting the side view mirrors.
 
Why would anyone want to turn off the music? As noted by several others, myself included, I didn’t even know the car played music until my wife asked about it. If you can’t hear it as the driver, why even consider turning it off?
 
Tailwind said:
Why would anyone want to turn off the music? As noted by several others, myself included, I didn’t even know the car played music until my wife asked about it. If you can’t hear it as the driver, why even consider turning it off?
Click to expand...

I can imagine situations where I didn’t want to draw attention to myself. The chiming is definitely unusual and would likely get noticed by nearby people (as designed).

Ultimately I’d probably leave it on, but it’s unfortunate that is not an option for US models.
 
Tailwind said:
Why would anyone want to turn off the music? As noted by several others, myself included, I didn’t even know the car played music until my wife asked about it. If you can’t hear it as the driver, why even consider turning it off?
Click to expand...
The reason I want to turn it off is I added a subwoofer and when the "low speed music" plays it distorts the subwoofer making it pointless. Bc I can't listen to music and drive. There must be a fix
 
Looks like the AVAS control unit has a 12p connector. Under the dash. Just trying to locate it. I think finding this could solve the problem. .......
 

Attachments

  • IMG_3942.webp
    IMG_3942.webp
    34 KB · Views: 104
You might want to check to see if it is against the law in the US to turn off that sound. I understand the 2011 Leaf has a on/off switch for that but not the later model. Even if there is no law (yet, I believe the legislation was just finalized), you might get sue if you get into an accident.

Cleantechnica.com has an article on March 6th talking about the US DOT finalizes the EV noise maker you might want to check out.

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/03/06/us-dot-finally-finalizes-low-speed-noise-maker-rules-evs/
 
Lucien Mcleod said:
Looks like the AVAS control unit has a 12p connector. Under the dash. Just trying to locate it. I think finding this could solve the problem. .......
Click to expand...
Lucien, thanks for the great info. The doc you posted says to make sure the B5 fuse is OK. So if that fuse doesn’t protect anything other than the AVAS, then that’s the one we’re looking for. Only trouble is that I can’t match B5 to the fuse diagram on the kick panel. Any ideas?
1A6B7902-6142-4FDE-9670-1D6800107774.webp
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top