This is news to me, I didn't know we _had_ to have engine noise and now I'm sad that we have to have it at all. I was hoping highways of the future would carry only the sound of tires raggedly rolling along the surface. That was my interpretation of the promise of EVs

I don't buy the safety argument either really, additionally it's incredibly wasteful. Part of the issue with ICE engines was that they were constantly trying to reduce engine noise because if it's making too much noise/heat then that's energy that's being wasted in transfer. Now we're emulating that?

I considered motorcycle engines to be excessive too, but people always defended the ear-deafening sound as being "for safety" (when really, they just liked making noise and having the vibrations rumble through their bodies)