[Ohio-talk] Fw: From The Washington Post.

[Everett Gavel]

Yay.  It's a good step forward -- allowing pedestrians
to step forward with confidence, too.

Strive On!
Everett
everett at everettgavel.com
(330) 604-5750


----- Original Message ----- Movement on sounds in
quiet cars
Nissan makes the Leaf rustle; Car manufacturer adds
noises to quiet
electric vehicle to alert pedestrians to its presence.
by Peter Whoriskey.
It was  quiet. Maybe too quiet. With advocates for
pedestrians and the blind
warning that hybrid and electric cars could catch
strollers unaware, the
designers of the Nissan Leaf have added sound effects
to the otherwise
nearly silent vehicle. After exploring a hundred sounds
that ranged from
chimes to motorlike to futuristic, the company settled
on a soft whine that
fluctuates in intensity with the car's speed. When
backing up, the car makes
a clanging sound. Nissan says it worked with advocates
for the blind, a
Hollywood sound-design company and acoustic
psychologists in creating its
system of audible alerts. While silence is golden, it
does present practical
challenges," a Nissan statement said. The Leaf is
scheduled to go on sale in
part of the United States in December. Nissan added the
artificial noises as
lawmakers and regulators study whether auto
manufacturers should be required
to install warning sounds in their vehicles to alert
pedestrians. With more
than 1.6 million hybrid vehicles on the road, and the
number of electric
cars expected to rise with the introduction of more
vehicles like the Leaf,
a number of safety advocates have warned of the dangers
to pedestrians.
According to a study by the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration
last year, hybrid vehicles are twice as likely as
conventional cars to be
involved in a pedestrian crash in some low-speed
situations. Others have
argued that adding sounds to cars works against decades
of effort by
automakers  to make cars that run quietly. Some
electric car companies
complained that silence is one of the main virtues of
the battery-run cars.
Nissan's sound system is the first created by a major
manufacturer. The
company says it is controlled  by a computer and
synthesizer in the dash
panel. The  sounds are delivered through a speaker in
the engine
compartment. A switch inside the vehicle can turn off
the sounds
temporarily, but the system automatically resets to
"on" at the next
ignition cycle. At speeds greater than 20 mph, any car,
electric or not,
makes significant noise because of the tires slapping
on the pavement,
engineers say. The noises for the Nissan operate only
at the lower speeds.
whoriskeyp at washpost.com.