Your Hybrid (or EV) Just Got Noiser

SCHEDULE

Assume passage this year:

September 1, 2013 - mandatory implementation

It is likely to show up before the deadline so we're looking at anytime from bill signing to 2013/09/01.

Bob Wilson

 

One new piece in the legislation:

There is a good reason why this is being done without a lot of attention.

Bob Wilson

 

Cars have horns for a reason.

 

If they require new hybrids / EVs to make artificial noise - I've bought my last one. I doubt I'm the only one who feels this way.

-Brad

 

It depends upon how it is implemented, if it passes:

• BADLY - the hybrid cabin suffers all the highest noise using the current, useless, "backup beep" mechanism. To be heard outside the car, the internal volume is so loud it makes our ears bleed. Pedestrians continue to die at the same rate.
• LESS BADLY - the hybrid cabin is insulated from the noise generators and with the windows rolled up, only the ears of pedestrians and neighbors are bleeding. Pedestrians continue to die at the same rate.
• PERFECTLY - all cars, hybrids and non-hybrids, are insulated from the noise generators and with the windows rolled up, only the ears of pedestrians and neighbors are bleeding. The cacophony of noise generators now hides high-speed cars from those who depend upon hearing to navigate the streets until it is too late.

Bob Wilson

 

Nail on head, Bob - per usual!

-Brad

 

I wonder who is going to be the first person killed by a belled hybrid? If it happens soon after the first ones are on the road it will prove that it is a waste of time. Wouldn't having an anticollision device be better? Would the anticollision device already on some Prii be useful?

 

Yup.

 

Telling us won't be as effective as contacting your Congress-critters.

Bob Wilson

 

Legislative status:

• H.R. 5381: Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010 - has the added "Bell the Hybrid" language.
• S. 3302: Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010 - does not have the "Bell the Hybrid" language, yet.

• H.R. 734: Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 - the original bill, still in committee. Since Waxman added even more severe language to H.R. 5381.
• S. 841: Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 - the Senate version of the original bill, still in committee.

Complaining about the legislation here is venting. Complaining to your Congress Critters is how representative government works. Silence is assent.

Bob Wilson

 

Well... the "blind coalition" - whoever that may be - is who's stirring the pot. So at least the blind are being USED to create the problem. I agree that they aren't the *actual* problem, but they (meaning this unknown "coalition") are creating it to some extent.

Yeah, yeah, I get it!

Yup. And my comment was ONLY pointed at that fact. Sorry that it got confused with the other.

My hope is that it is because they intend to show through great expense and number of studies that their solution is the proper one. And for that I'll give them heaps of credit. If I had the most effective and cheapest solution to some stupid legilation I'd be yelling it all over the place as well.

 

The legislation directs the NHTSA to implement the regulation and that is when the penalties will be assigned. I would have to look around for penalties for disabling safety equipment such as air bags, seat belts, or removing external mirrors or operating a vehicle with unsafe brakes, bumpers, e.t.c. Some of these regulations and penalties are handled by the individual states ... like vehicle safety inspections.

Disabling threads are premature since we don't have test articles. IMHO, the previously proposed 'noise generators' were and remain silly, which engendered more opposition than I could have imagined. Non-hybrid owners laugh at these early proposals. So personally, I think such threads are strawmen fights . . . otherwise harmless. If we get a few calls and letters to our Congress Critters, OK.

Bob Wilson

 

so al new cars will have to have a noise maker..
i did not hear the ICE from a jag some time agon standing next to it..
yes it was quiet....

 

The legislative language says they are next.

Bob Wilson

 

noise makers ? party favors ? one reason people like these cars is that they are quiet.i forsee people startin new threads one day in how to eliminate the "must" sound on the new cars. hahaha

 

I am as opposed to noise pollution as anyone and I would hate to see this happen but I fear the politicians will not see it our way.

I have written to my congressional representatives. If I receive any answers I will post the gist of their replies.

 

This is preliminary data but I wanted to share it before I formally documented it:

• 0.163 - USA pedesrian fataltiy rate / 100 million miles, 2001-07, from NHTSA FARS database
• 0.109 - USA Prius pedestrian fatality rate / 100 million miles, 2001-07, USA sales and NHTSA FARS database

My formal documentation will show:

• annual Prius sales 2000-2007
• 3% annual loss - assumes USA loss rate
• USA fleet, annual mileage from NHTSA FARS database
• uses FARS vehicle miles per year

Ok, there are two ways to look at this data using "percentages"

• USA fleet has 49% higher pedestrian fatality rate than Prius ((0.163-0.109) / 0.109)
• USA Prius fleet has 33% lower pedestrian fatality rate USA fleet ((0.163-0.109) / 0.163)

I demonstrated the calculations of relative risk percentages to make sure you' all understand that when I say last years NHTSA report claiming 'Prius are twice as dangerous' is a fraud was exceptionally dumb. If someone offers percentages, see if your wallet is already stolen. Last year's NHTSA hybrid risk report is literally as unfair as a bully cutting up a desert, a pie or cake, and trying to make an unsupportable claim.

Bob Wilson

 

funny thing is with al that noise on the road today you can not distinguish any sound from the other.
so how can blind do that?
with les noise on the road simple tire noise that the prius also got a lot of like any other car will be enough to my opinion for the blind.

what do we need to do for the people that can not hear? have a earthquaqe generator onboard to have them FEEL the car ?