Do Electric Propulsion Vehicles Really Need To Generate Noise?

Everybody likes big government....
Until they get regulated.

Personally?
I could care less, but it's going to be fun to watch...

 

I'm just glad they're taking their time to study it. When the legislation was introduced nobody even knew whether quiet vehicles were responsible* for more injurious accidents with pedestrians. The number of accidents is higher, but with no usage statistics to back it up.

* Key word is responsible, which is different from involved in.

 

It's a natural reaction to anything new. In the early days of gasoline powered cars, some locations required a flagman to walk ahead of the car.

Tom

 

"We fear change."

 

Anyone having spent a significant amount of time around golf carts, 24 hours of daytona comes to mind, would answer in the affirmative.

 

It's user switchable on our vehicles

We've had electric vehicles for years - 1950's milk floats for one. Also, what of the damage caused by cyclists whizzing through a city or even mobility scooters?

It sounds to me like a solution to a non proved problem. Funny it happens to be America that has found the 'problem' yet most electric cars are manufactured elsewhere. It wouldn't be the first time America has come out with some ridiculous legislation to put off non domestic manufacturers. Sounds to me like they make electric cars sound stupid so that people won't want to drive one and will instead buy a locally made 6 litre V8 truck.

 

The only vehicles I can reliably hear are diesels, hillbilly trucks without mufflers, and cars with those tuner exhausts. The rest I'm more likely to hear tires grinding pavement grit or brake squeal before anything else.

 

Looks like the EU and UK have jumped on the bandwagon...

Pump up the volume, drivers told, as soundless car engines now pose danger to cyclists and pedestrians | Mail Online

 

Today I was sat behind a another gen3 Prius at a traffic light when another one pulled up behind me! Apart from being amazed by this I also noticed just how beautifully quiet this traffic queue was.

In a couple years time it'll be a cacophony of electric hums, whines and drones! Anybody living near a road will be driven mad. I wonder if the tests they're doing take into account multiple vehicles when these noise makers are on?

 

+1
Tires are often the biggest noise, skuffing against the asphalt. Adding more noise, to more noise simply serves to add to the mess. Just like day time running lights. You can only take so much junk coming in, and then your mind simply can't filter/deal with it any more.

.

 

Personally I do not want a mandatory noise generator on either of my vehicles... I like the way the Chevy Volt has incorporated the noise generator by making it a button on the turn signal stalk. So if I need to set it off at someone I can do so... It is really annoying though that people are to busy texting/yapping on their phone and just step off the sidewalk right into the road. I am always on my toes and have found it is just safer to wait it out to see what the ped is going to do before I go by them. It is really getting rediculous though with people not paying attention. Maybe it is just Florida, but I do not think anyone will be saved by making mandatory noise generators on EV's.. If anything the people will just turn the music up, plug their ears, and still step out into the road anyway. I think the problem will come in when EV's go mainstream, and you have these same irresponsible people who do stuff while driving impacts a ped not paying attention.... I did these same things when I was younger but now that I am older I find myself paying more and more attention to the road/surroundings. Especially now having electrics because I do not want to hit anyone.

 

per Transportation Research Board (National Academy of Sciences):

"Incidence Rates of Pedestrian and Bicyclist Crashes by Hybrid Electric Passenger Vehicles: An Update

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released a report that updates a 2009 study on the incident rate of hybrid electric (HE) vehicles being involved in crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists compared to pedestrian and bicyclists’ crashes involving a vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine (ICE).

According to the updated report, overall, the odds ratios indicate that the odds of an HE vehicle being in either a pedestrian or bicycle crash are greater, 35 percent and 57 percent respectively, than the odds of an ICE vehicle being in a similar crash."

Incidence Rates of Pedestrian and Bicyclist Crashes by Hybrid Electric Passenger Vehicles: An Update | Blurbs | Main

As a mean kid, I helped put pebbles in a hubcap of a brand new Frasier - made wonderful clicking sounds at low speed, which went away at faster speeds.

</traffic engineer>

 

A person could be seriously injured when hit by a car at even 2 or 3 miles per hour wherein, I don't think there is any tire noise at that speed, or the noise could be easily drowned out by ambient noise.
That said, I don't know if the vpns puts out at 2 miles/ hour.

I first saw reference on Wiki to study there is increased incidence of electrified cars meeting certain pedestrians. Personally I won't fight against the authorities on this.

 

Let's see..

We ALL have horns.
Many have backup "beepers"...some w/KLAXONS..
A relatively few now have backup cameras.

What's with those...?

Anyone ever done an analysis of golf cart accidents....not just on the golf course. A few years ago at Daytona I witnessed a young girl get her leg broken by a backing golf cart. She was standing directly behind the cart and so didn't have time to react to the beeper as the driver apparently expected.

My headlights FLASH when I use the horn. Used that to get the attention of oncoming traffic passing, beginning to pass, in my lane more than once.

ALL my cars not only have DRLs (highbeam, distance visible) but are wired for street/parking/tail lights on also. Some of my vehicles, Porsche 911(3), '93 Ford Ranger, '01 RX300 ) are modified so that EXTRA brake lights, not just the high mount, illuminate upon braking.

 

"...now that I'm older..."

But what do you suggest we do about the "oncoming" younger driving "set"...??

 

The only thing that bothers me at this point about the VPNS is that since legislation hasn't been passed, I wish Toyota would of given us the courtesy of the same off switch that exists in other markets.

Until studies are confirmed and laws passed, I'd rather have the Off/On option.

 

Quite inappropriate to beep the horn at a blind person approaching your car while you're about to pull out of a lot into the street - they don't even know you're there because there is no noise, then beeeeeeeeep, they're startled by some hybrid beeping at them. Geeeez.

All they want to do is hear something out of 3,000 lb hunks of metal that can move quite silently here and there.

Sometimes people walking in parking lots look back to see me following in a hybrid, they're surprised, not knowing anything was behind them. That is sighted people. How much worse for the non-sighted?

Anyrate, doesn't matter, the authorities will work this out regardless of what car owners demand.

 

Yea yea - doesn't matter - let the government work this out ... we must protect all of the weak ... even the weakest of the weak-minded travelers ... so for everyone using streets or sidewalks - All bicyclists - All pedestrians - All motor vehicles - they all must constantly use:
Doppler radar
150 db horns
xenon strobes (2 Joules brightness)
Who needs government to solve crime and a trillion dollar deficit, when they can take care of the truly important things.

 

Don't joke about the 150db horn. I have been looking for a place to mount a train horn on our Gen 3 Prius without doing to much modding of the car. Once I find that place people will have no excuse not to hear the car after that.