In-vehicle noise is composed of a variety of tonal (frequency-related) components and the tonal components play an important role in the improvement of sound quality for interior vehicle noise. Among them, gear whine noise is the key contributor to total in-vehicle noise and gain a lot of researchers interest. Through their effort, thespl (dBA)is relatively low. However, customers still perceive the tonal components and complain about the vehicle quality. Therefore a better understanding of how tonal components are perceived is necessary for automotive gear transmission designers. In this study, firstly, gear dynamic behavior is briefly introduced to get the gear noise spectrum. Secondly, human hearing mechanism to different tonal components is summed. Then loudness case studies are conducted. Finally, some basic design principles of controlling gear whine noise are proposed based on the results.