Senate Approves Bill Requiring Silent EVs to emit noise at low speeds

How this whole idea plays out will effect us all. I believe that the original idea was to worn blind people at cross walks when a EV car was taking off or at a road crossing. If this is what it ends up being, that's fine. Let the car make a beep or burp, anything that the blind can be taught means there is a electric auto near them. I don't want to see my car making a sound 100% of the time. This would be foolish, I feel that we all agree that a alarm outside the car while moving in reverse would be a good added feature. This same alarm while moving forward until we reached 2 MPH would serve the purpose for the blind.

I believe that this is a standard feature already in Japan....how does it work there ???

 

If it is, I'm sure the folks in Washington haven't a clue.

 

<RANT>

This has now become a hot-button item for me. Unfortunately my wife and I are on opposite sides of the fence.

I am very much opposed to adding additional sound to EVs and Hybrids. One of the added benefits to me is exactly that they ARE quiet. I think that there is too much noise pollution all ready and (to mix metaphores) EVs are like a breath of fresh air.

As far as I can tell this is a "what if" agrument by advocates of the blind that Congress has succumbed too. This isn't the same as backup accidents which are well documented. In the past 10 YRS of Toyota Prius how many actual accidents have occured involving Prius and Blind Pedestrians????

This strikes me as a "sky is falling" unfounded fear. Silent cars will be running down the blind in droves. I don't think so. Over reaction.

Don't get me wrong. Blind people certainly have their share of problems. Just ... has anyone actually documented a real danger to the blind from quiet cars?

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On another note I would not mind mandating that four-way flashers engage while backing. This might alert driver (who hopefully are not blind) that we are backing up (as if the back up lights aren't a hint).

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Maybe we could have the option of porting our sound system via external speakers to the outside world - that we could bast some Ludacris at pedestrians.

</RANT>

 

The announcement is:

ねえ、ばか！

Another option is the soundtrack of Godzilla attacking.

 

This is dumb because a new Honda Civic is nearly silent as well. The tires make as much noise or more then the engine in many small cars or luxury cars.

Why make just the electric cars louder? Why not the other quiet cars as well?

Bikes are nearly silent and I was nearly hit by one going the wrong way on a one way street..... why not make then noisy too? Even a paper card in the wheel will do, but it SHOULD BE REQUIRED.

At some point we will need to face the reality of pedestrian on pedestrian crashes. Nike and Adidas make nearly silent shoes as well. It will only cost a couple of pennies to add sound to shoes.

 

i usually donate to the local school for the blind. this year i sent them a letter asking if they understand or even know what the national federation is doing. i doubt i'll hear from them.

 

I should repeat my view here. I'll agree to minimum noise requirements IF, and ONLY IF, they are applied to all motor vehicles, regardless of propulsion method.

It seems that the noise expected by many 'bell the hybrids and EVs' proponents exceeds the noise emitted by an increasing number of quiet traditionally-powered cars in some operating conditions. Including these would raise the number of affected vehicles by an order of magnitude, and many of these will be owned by people with greater political influence than Joe Sixpack. This should greatly improve the likelihood the resulting noise standard will be reasonable.

 

Does the law apply to current hybrids?

I've asked this like 6 times in 6 different threads and nobody's answered me. That's the only question that matters.

 

^^^ At this time, the law doesn't apply to anything because it doesn't yet exist.

 

But should it exist, then...???

 

If it does, then I want Toyota to take the blasted reverse beeper from inside and move it to the rear bumper. No sense in wasting money on a noise maker when there's one already on the car!

 

If I have to bell my car I want it to say , STOP YAPPING ON YOUR PHONE AND LOOK AROUND YOU. I think the stupid are more of a concern than the blind.

 

Reread the original post ...

I hope that there is still time for our voices to be heard. Perhaps an email campaign?

... And to answer your specific question ... No it does not apply to current US cars, but I believe that the Leaf and Volt may be doing it proactively.

 

I want a motion detector that triggers a loud AAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGAAAAAHHHHH horn.

Or maybe the Roadrunner MEEP MEEP!

 

I'm just going to clothespin some baseball cards to my spokes...

 

You hit the nail on the head!

In most autos, TIRE NOISE alone overshadows engine noise making any argument mute.

-Brad