Spaceship \ sonar noise?

[Jenna]

Hi all

A friend in america has the UX and said its a great car like everyone on here but he did mention that it has this annoying feature were to alert pedestrians that the car is approaching it makes this weird sonar \ spaceship noise. He said you cant hear it in the car but you can hear it outside of the car. He said it annoys his neighbours. I cant find anything on this noise at all. Is it really that loud that it can annoy the neighbours? Does anyone know what this noise is as i cant find anything on it here in the UK.

[steve2006]

This may help or perhaps a call to the local dealer to see if this feature can be disabled.

https://www.lexus.com/documents/safety/Lexus-Safety-System-Plus-2_0-022619.pdf

[DanD]

In some countries there is a requirement for electric cars to emit some kind of sound to warn pedestrians of their proximity. It is referred to as AVAS (Accoustic Vehicle Alert System) and will be compulsory in the US from September 2020, as dictated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, so some manufacturer are getting ahead of the game. This applies to hybrid cars also while they run in EV mode. This safety feature cannot be disabled as it is a legal requirement, however it automatically switches off above a certain speed which I believe is around 25 mph. It is active all the time while the car is in reverse. To my knowledge, this feature will become compulsory in some European countries some time in 2021 and this will include the UK. Note that the Renault Zoe already has it: in fact, you have a choice of three different sounds. One emulates an engine noise, another is definitely spaceship like.

From what I have witnessed is no louder than a car engine and is for the benefit of pedestrians only, in particularly visually impaired people with guide dogs. I guess it might 'disturb neighbours' because it is unusual, but personally I'd rather listen to this than the rattle of a Diesel engine first thing in the morning!