Electric car noise is now a problem. Electric cars are silent. It is nearly silent whenever you have hybrid cars in electric mode at lower speeds. With more hybrid cars on the streets, and a lot more to come, hybrid cars have become silent but deadly. A lot more pedestrians, especial blind ones, are getting hit. Given that 2008, bills to require automakers to add noise to hybrid cars have bounced around Congress. But on Wednesday automakers and advocates for the blind presented Congress with a proposal to build in minimum noise levels for future electric cars as part of the Federal Motor Safety Act.
Blind have to be able to hear car noise
Electric car noise is moving to the forefront of automobile safety. CNN Money.com reports that a study done last year by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) showed hybrid cars hitting pedestrians a lot more often than any cars in situations where the approaching car can’t be seen. Blind pedestrians using a guide dog or cane have to be able to hear the sounds of traffic to cross streets safely as outlined by the National Federation for the Blind. Also, the distance and speed of oncoming cars is figured out by the sound for everyone.
More hybrid cars hitting the road
Electric car noise, or the lack of it, emerged as an issue when mass production of hybrid cars started in 2000. A 2009 study, reported on topbits.com explained that drivers have used financing like unsecured personal loans to purchase a lot more than 1.6 million hybrids ever then. In just 10 years, hybrid numbers went from a dozen to 1.6 million on the road. This rate is expected to accelerate as a lot more automakers are focusing on hybrids. As reported by hybridcar.som, total U.S. hybrid sales for April 2010 were 23,561 — a 1.2 percent increase from the month before, and an 8.4 percent increase from April 2009 from one year ago. Sales of the Honda Insight are 14 percent higher than last month
The Federal Motor Safety Act
Electric car noise advocates include The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the American Council for the Blind, the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, and also the National Federation for the Blind. The groups recommended language to Congress they would like to see included within the Motor Safety Act of 2010, a bill that is now moving through Congress and would update national auto safety rules. The need for electric car noise first emerged within the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2008–only to become the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. The electric car noise now appears to be gaining traction.
Car manufacturers making noise for hybrid
Electric car noise is already something that is used by leading hybrid car manufacturers. Nissan plans to get into the hybrid car market a step ahead of the competition when it comes to car noise. Bloomberg reports that three years ago Nissan told engineer Toshiyuki Tabata to re-create the sound of an engine. Tabata spent 20 years trying to make gasoline powered cars quieter. Now he is teaching composers how to make cars noisier.
The electric car noise art
Nissan consulted Japanese film score composers to get the right sound. Tabata and his team got the high-pitched futuristic sound reminiscent of the flying cars in “Blade Runner,” the 1982 science fiction film starring Harrison Ford portraying an android bounty hunter in a dark, dismal future LA. “We wanted something a bit different, something closer to the world of art,” Tabata said. To produce the electric car noise, a sound system activates automatically when the car starts and deactivates when the car reaches 12 miles per hour. When going faster than that, wind and tire noise should make the car detectable.
Regulating electric car noisemakers
Electric car noisemakers have been developed by car electronic manufacturers. Tokyo-based Datasystem Co. makes a device selling for $ 140 that gives off 16 different sounds which contains a cat’s meow, a cartoon-like “boing” and a human voice saying, “Excuse me.” The language proposed by the electric car noise advocacy group would regulate these products. Their version of the bill has the NHTSA creating a new safety standard for hybrid cars establishing a minimum sound required at low speeds. Drivers couldn’t customize the sound of their cars the very same way they download ringtones for cell phones. An approved sound or set of sounds would have to be approved.
GM and their electric cars
The Chevy Volt is one of probably the most anticipates electric cars. Other hybrid systems have different technology used than GM’s electric cars. As reported on greencarreports.com, Chevy said the Volt will be equipped with a driver-controlled system that would end up producing an “automotive quality sound” that pedestrians would instantly recognize, called a series of low horn audio signals or cues. GM’s electric car can travel 40 miles on its battery. Rather than beginning when at a certain speed, the Volt’s 1.4 liter, 4-cylinder gas powered engine fires up when the battery is depleted. A generator linked to the engine actually creates electricity and powers the electric motor, extending the Volt’s range up to around 300 miles.
Additional details at these websites
CNN Money.com reports
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/19/autos/electric_car_noise/?npt=NP1
hybrid car manufacturers
http://www.cardealexpert.com/news-information/auto-news/bmw-project-i-megacity-2013/
Bloomberg reports
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aIqaK2fByA.8
greencarreports.com
http://www.greencarreports.com/blog/1039019_2011-chevrolet-volt-pedestrian-alert-system-will-be-driver-controlled
