Coming to "Bell the Hybrid"

[bwilson4web]

Students’ prototype counters quiet creep of hybrid cars

...
Meyer and Bai met during last year's Summer Institute for Entrepreneurship program at the Graduate School of Business and began working on a speaker system to make hybrid vehicles audible, especially those that can run in fully electric mode like the Toyota Prius, Camry and Highlander. On their own time, juggling their coursework, they eventually set up a company called Enhanced Vehicle Acoustics and developed a prototype of the system.
"The inspiration is the coolness factor," Meyer said. "The idea that there's a problem out there and you can do something about it."
...
Prius owners are debating the bill they call the "Bell the Hybrid Act" in online chat forums across the nation. Meyer said they expect some resistance to their product. "We got a lot of voices saying, 'This is a bad idea. You're making a lot of noise.' We don't believe that. We believe this is something that has to happen."
"In business school they taught us that a good idea is one that never reaches consensus," Bai said.
Now they have a company called Enhanced Vehicle Acoustics and a plan to market their products. "People who drive Priuses are generally pretty conscientious and aware, so it seems like a good beginning market," Meyer said. As more electric cars come along, he said, the speaker system may interest both drivers and manufacturers.
...
This summer Meyer and Bai are taking their prototype on the road to the national convention of the National Federation of the Blind in Dallas, the Plug-In Exposition in San Jose and NoiseCon in Dearborn, Mich. The Prius, they said, won't be coming with them. Instead, they hope to use a vehicle borrowed or volunteered on site.
...

Time for a little reality training.

Bob Wilson

[ForTheGlory]

I'm an engineer, not a businessman, but isn't this the wrong way for them to think about their product? There is no "market" for this device. I'd be shocked iif more than 1% of hybrid owners willingly purchase a noisemaker for their cars.

The only way they'd ever sell a reasonable number of those things is if the government mandates that they be included on all hybrids. If that happens, manufacturers will of course include the noisemakers as standard equipment on all new hybrids sold. So, at best, the "market" for their product includes only hybrids which have already been sold--a very small number, relative to how many will be sold in the future.

Also, I wonder if they've wired the thing to only make noise when the engine is turned off and the vehicle is moving.

[Rokeby]

This is a very shrewd, anticipatory move on the developer's part, very
much in the true entreprenurial spirit.

The regulatory process includes public hearings and cost benefit analysis.
If this is the only plug-and-play, purpose built product of its type on the
market or close to it, thier product name will be splashed all over the
public record. When the advocates for the blind pick up on it, in short
time the company and product will be all over the Internet. Clever, very
clever, to get a public service endorsement and free advertising at the
same time.

There may not be a market for the device yet, but should the regulatory
effort be successful there will be an instant high demand, and these two
clever fellows will at least for a short time be the only one's in the race to
"make hay while the sun shines."

Edit: Most likely there would be a phase-in period for any requirement.
I would guess 2 or 3 years for existing vehicles. In that time, larger companys
will come to dominate the market. These fellows probwbly won't last all
that long. Even if they have a unique, patentable product, they couldn't afford
the legal battle to defend it.

Their best plan would be to sell out early, get what they can. Move on to
strobe light equipped beanies. Which in all fairness every person who crosses
a roadway should have to wear to provide adequate notice to drivers of
thier placing themselves in harms way.

[SparrowHawk60]

I think they missed the market. They should have come up with a Fart filter for cows. Something useful in reducing the methane gas problem.

[pottedmeat]

If I promise to roll down my window at every intersection, stick my head out, and make really loud "VROOM VROOM!" noises, can I get away without having to buy one of these?

[AZPrius]

Yeah, please... as if with all the noise pollution from motorcycles and street racing crapmobiles, now all of a sudden a quiet car is a problem.

Business school - last bastion of the terminally stupid.

[hiremichaelreid]

Originally Posted by pottedmeat

If I promise to roll down my window at every intersection, stick my head out, and make really loud "VROOM VROOM!" noises, can I get away without having to buy one of these?

Sure !

Isn't there some old film showing a "newfangled car" driver who has to stop at intersections, blow horns, shoot guns in the air etc. to warn any horse and buggy driver within 5 miles before he crosses ?

[hobbit]

If they're going to *regulate* anything, why the heck can't
they *regulate* the clueless ISPs and make them stem the tide
of spam and botnets or face sanctions and shutdown?
.
_H*

[Bill Merchant]

Just in case you haven't followed the reality, about 4800 pedestrians got killed per year in the US from 2002 through 2006. Of these, 0.11%, just a little over one-tenth of one percent, were blind. Of these 6 blind pedestrians killed each year, none were killed by a hybrid car.

This is why it is so important to make the Prius noisy. We're not getting our fair share of blind pedestrians!