[Quietcars] Response to NYT article.

[michael townsend]

	Folks,

And, is this the right way to go>?  It's an idea who's time may have come or
gone!

There are a few different working models of noisemakers for hybrids, one
built by Lotus and another from Germany which allow exhaust sounds to be
pumped out of speakers located on the corners of the hybrid vehicle and
these sounds are user controlled and activated.  It doesn't say whether this
opportunity which presents itself is user activated and whether this sound
emanates from the vehicle even if the engine is running when the electric
motor cuts off.  Can one even tell whether this car is coming from which
direction, and how many speakers are affixed to the vehicle so that one
might able to tell from which direction the vehicle is traveling and
possibly get a speed at which the vehicle is approaching?  

Mike T

 

Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/education/edlife/ideas-noise-t.html

Text:
Can You Hear My Prius Now?
Published: December 24, 2008

Unlike their clanking combustion counterparts, cars powered by electricity
make nary a peep. That poses a problem for passersby - the blind in
particular. Enter Everett Meyer and Bryan Bai, who met at the Summer
Institute for Entrepreneurship at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
They had an idea: make the Prius impossible to ignore. (Both graduated in
June - Dr. Meyer from medical school; Dr. Bai with a Ph.D. in electrical
engineering.) With seed money from the National Federation for the Blind,
they built a system that attaches to a hybrid, mimicking a diesel engine's
purr or a higher-pitched ping. Keep those windows rolled up should the
Pedestrian Safety Act, now in committee, pass: it seeks to establish minimum
sound levels for hybrids.




Mike Townsend and Seeing Eye dog Brent
Dunellen, New Jersey  08812
emails:  mrtownsend at optonline.net; 
michael.townsend54 at gmail.com
Home Phone:  732  200-5643
Cellular:  732  718-9480