[Quietcars] Let us reason together

[Robert Wilson]

Hi folks,

I hope that by sharing the facts and data about hybrid electric cars and blind pedestrian safety we may yet find an opportunity for collaboration. But that only works if we can agree on the facts and commit to common goals and objectives. As LBJ would have said, 'Let us reason together.'

September 30, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed SB 1174, the California version of HR 5734, citing: (1) vehicle safety issues need a national solution, not a state by state effort; and (2) pedestrian safety has nothing to do with "air pollution emissions," which this badly labeled bill attempted to expand. Meanwhile, HR 5734 is in the subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection that has yet to schedule a hearing. 

The states are not going to be able to force a national safety policy. They can only block hybrid sales to their residents or jack up the price substantially with a mandated noise system. Given every Prius made is sold and there is a waiting list, the residents of other states will smile if Maryland choses to leave the hybrid car market.

HR 5734 has no equivalent Senate bill and Congress is out until after the November election. There may be a 'lame duck' session but pending something remarkable, when this Congress ends, so too does HR 5734.

The June 23 hearing revealed the NHTSA has no supporting accident data showing a hybrid hazard. It is hard to justify taking time and budget away from efforts aimed at the annual 4,700 dead and tens of thousands more with documented injuries when there is no accident data showing a hybrid in quiet operation are deadly. For example, the NHTSA decided the Fatality Accident Recording System (FARS) is not worth searching because the probability of a fatal accident at hybrid quiet speeds is so low. Even Rosenblum's data shows that quiet hybrid operation below 28 mph are at such lowt speeds that the probability of a fatality is 5% or less.

>From the June 23 hearing, Rosenblum can not get consistent data from the two Prius he tested. Goodes pointed out the importance of controlling all variables and the difficulty of extracting a pure tone signal from background noise. Sauerburger pointed all cars have become quieter. Blomberg pointed out that noise masking already makes many of today's cars audio invisible. He also pointed to the cocktail party effect that once we begin increasing the noise level, it gets louder and louder but comprehension is not improved. But there are anecdotal stories that claim hybrids are hazardous. 

The kid who didn't look before driving into traffic has a mother who excused her failure to teach her kid bicycle safety by blaming the car. She claimed noise would have prevented the accident instead of teaching her sighted child to look before driving into traffic.

Hybrid cars are quiet at low speed but there seems to be no thought or measure that hybrid drivers are more careful because they know this to be the case. Furthermore, all drivers know that noise is not a primary safety feature especially in parking lots full of pedestrians with iPods, cell phones or a gaggle of kids and friends who are not listening to traffic. But the backover a foot accident is special because a law was passed.

In February 2008, the President signed the "Cameron Gulbransen Kids and Cars Safety Act of 2007", S. 694 / HR 1216 that addresses the backover accident rate. The April 13 Chidester report that shows engine running exhaust pipes and rear bumpers knocking down and killing 25 kids each year addresses a real hazard, one that is found in the accident statistics. Backing over a foot is another backover accident and nothing unique to a hybrid electric. But remember this because there is an opportunity for collaboration.

There has been a real problem with inflated, unsubstantiated claims:
 "... extremely hazardous ..." - HR 5734
 "Hybrid Cars are Deadly Silent" - HealthNews
 "Hybird cars silent, deadly, advocates for blind warn" - The Albuquerque Tribune
 "Deadly Hybrid Cars" - The Atlantic
 "Colbert: Hybrid Fuel is Blind People" - Stephen Colbert

I mention the last one because every time we look at the accident data, it comes up empty and these inflated stories have become objects of scorn and ridicule. This is doubly so because the NHTSA accident data has also failed to find evidence of a hazard and the June 23 record is available. 

Extreme language like "deadly" and "extremely hazardous" directed at hybrid electrics is about as hostile as one can get. That these are false claims suggest a blunt answer in kind, like laughter or "liar" but that is the path to confrontation, not collaboration. If we can tone down the rhetoric, there may be common ground that we might work together on to improve pedestrian safety.

Sauerburger and the audio experts pointed out, all cars are quieter. It is time that all drivers be reminded that "WARNING: pedestrians and the blind may not hear vehicle at low speed." 

Every new car has an air bag placard on the sun visor. Adding this warning text, "WARNING: pedestrians and the blind may not hear vehicle at low speed" to the visor as well as the owners manual of all cars is something the NHTSA can do without legislation. Although the accident data does not support the need, a serious review of the literature and possibly a driver survey makes this a prudent action. Best of all, the NHTSA can issue such a rule change without legislation and nothing more than a hearing to collect comments.

The second area for collaboration is the "Carmeron Gulbransen Kids and Cars Safety Act of 2007" that is already law. Goran Bogdanovic of Creative Performance Products has a prototype wireless warning system. I have a key fob system under development. The Japanese are putting wireless warning systems in cell phones. These wireless systems can address public law, S. 694 / HR 1216, the Carmeron Gulbransen Act which means the NHTSA has budget and authority to pursue solutions. The question is whether we can collaborate on a wireless solution that works for kids, the blind and the elderly or have to go our separate ways because only one technological solution, constant noise generators affixed to hybrid cars, is the only one acceptable to the blind.

I'm willing to work with Goran Bogdanovic, other wireless vendors and a member of the National Federation of the Blind Research and Development Committee, a family friend who lives two blocks away, on a wireless solution. I am willing to share key fob technology and I think we can come up with a prototype and unsolicited proposal to the NHTSA for the first quarter of 2009 that might lead to a successful pedestrian safety effort. Having done a patent search, no one is going to get rich over this effort but we can do something effective to improve pedestrian safety. But this may mean taking resources away from hybrid noise generators, a technological dead end. I don't need a thing but Goran and my neighbor may need to cover some of their expenses.

Because of the Cameron Gulbransen Act, there is a window for technical solutions that HR 5734 will not have. The opportunity to ride the coat tails of the Cameron Gulbransen Act will soon evaporate as it has an 18 month study period and was signed into law 8 months ago. If we can collaborate on a wireless solution that works for kids, the elderly and the blind, we have a chance.

Repeating the same legislative actions as HR 5734 in 2009 is likely to be even less successful.  The NHTSA accident data makes future legislation along the lines of HR 5734 not only unlikely but given the record of June 23, dead on arrival. The facts and data are now online at www.regulations.gov and hybrid owners have learned how to answer in kind.

So I'm reaching out to find out if there is any interest in collaboration. If not, that is fine too. But these are the facts and data and we have a window, until the end of the year, to decide where we will go next.

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

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