[gui-talk] Fwd: hybrid cars in the news again

[Steve Pattison]

From: Stephen whocrazy at gmail.com
To: vip-l at softspeak.com.au

this article curtesy of the age online.
      * John Elder
      * January 18, 2009
    Scott Nixon.
    Scott Nixon says he has had several near-misses with almost-silent
    vehicles. Photo: Ken Irwin
    SCOTT Nixon was crossing Flinders Street from the railway station 
when
    a loud honk frightened him. A hybrid car had "nearly cleaned me up".
    Mr Nixon, 30, has been blind from birth. He relies on his ears to 
get
    around, but silent-technology vehicles are on the rise -- and the
    visually impaired community is lobbying the Federal Government to
    research how dangerous the roads will become when there are a lot 
more
    hybrids.
    "It's one more thing we have to contend with," says Mr Nixon, who
    tells of "other incidents (with hybrids), like walking into one that
    had stopped halfway across the intersection. In the CBD it's
    impossible to know there's one there unless you're on top of it."
The issue has been on the boil for some time. In June, the Blind
    Advocacy Group, in its online newsletter, published a story called
    "Silent but Deadly?" It was actually a reprint of a Wall Street
Journal article from February 2007 that reported on US blind
    organisations demanding that vehicle makers install safety
noise-makers on their otherwise quiet cars. A year later, Fisker
    Automobiles, with headquarters in green-friendly California, 
announced
    the development of the $US80,000 ($A121,160) Karma, a sporty sedan
that one magazine described as "the sexiest hybrid ever".

    The sexiness includes speakers that produce a variety of optional 
fake
growling "user selectable" engine sounds -- apparently so the driver
    can still feel like a hoon. The optional aspect means the noise is 
not
    there to benefit the blind.

    Mr Nixon says fake engine noises are not necessary. "I'd like to see
    some kind of beeping device ... like they have with reversing 
trucks,"
he says.

    Last November, Australian blind advocacy groups met Department of
    Infrastructure officials.
Blind Citizens Australia and Vision Australia told The Sunday Age they
    hope the Government will initially fund research into the magnitude 
of
    the hybrid threat.

    Vision Australia advocacy officer Maurice Gleeson says: "In the next
    10 to 20 years, hybrids will be more developed and more affordable.
    They will become a bigger part of our community ... so what we have 
to
    do now is research how these vehicles will affect people with
    disabilities and sensory loss.

"Before adopting an official position on this issue, the department is
    waiting to hear the results of international discussions on the
    topic," said a Department of Infrastructure spokesman.

    "The department is monitoring the work on this topic currently under
way by the United Nations Economic Community Working Group for the
    Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations. The working group is due to
    report in mid-March 2009."

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
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