[Quietcars] Fwd: [Nfbv-leadership] GM to announce working with the blind to give electric cars a little noise

[Corbb O'Connor]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "John Bailey" <john_bailey17 at hotmail.com>
Date: November 26, 2009 2:05:55 PM EST
To: "NFB of Virginia Leadership List" <nfbv-leadership at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [Nfbv-leadership] GM to announce working with the blind to  
give electric cars a little noise
Reply-To: NFB of Virginia Leadership List <nfbv-leadership at nfbnet.org>


GM to announce working with the blind to give electric cars a little  
noise

By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY

General Motors
will announce Wednesday that it's working with one of the largest  
advocacy organizations for the vision-impaired to find ways for the  
next-generation electric
cars to make enough noise that pedestrians can hear them coming.

GM says it's working with the National Federation of the Blind on  
technology to make sure that near-silent electric cars and hybrids  
don't sneak up on unsuspecting
walkers or runners.

It's potentially a growing problem as the nation switches to battery- 
powered cars as an alternative to high-priced gasoline. A bill that  
would direct the
Transportation Department to regulate a solution - the Pedestrian  
Safety Enhancement Act - was introduced in Congress earlier this year.

One study already points to dangers. Walkers and bicyclists are being  
struck at a greater rate by hybrid vehicles than by conventional cars,  
concluded the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in September.

"I've had probably 25 blind people in the country tell me they've  
almost been hit by these cars," says NFB President Marc Maurer.  
Vehicles brushed up against
some or crushed their white canes, he says.

Maurer says he believes electric cars of the future will need to be  
equipped with a forward-directed sound device that operates without  
interruption while
the car is in motion. All electric vehicles will have to make roughly  
the same artificial noise, he says, so that blind people will be able  
to distinguish
them as moving vehicles.

Automakers balk at going that far for the moment.
Toyota
, the largest producer of hybrid cars, says it is still studying the  
issue. So is
Nissan
, which plans to introduce the all-electric Leaf next year.

GM already is equipping its new
Chevrolet
Volt extended-range electric car with a driver-activated warning  
system. The car will emit a short audible horn pulse about as loud as  
the ring of a telephone
when the driver pulls back on the turn-signal switch.

"We want to make sure it is something friendly and not startling,"  
says Volt's chief engineer, Andrew Farah. He says they already  
believed the sound had
to be "clearly automotive" in nature. And the collaboration with the  
federation is aimed at seeing if something more is needed.

Other automakers aren't so sure. Tesla, which already has sold about  
900 all-electric Roadsters, is reluctant to make noise.

"One of the top attributes that our customers bring up is that (the  
car) is so quiet," says spokeswoman Rachel Konrad. "The majority of  
the sound is not
from the engine. It's tire noise and wind resistance."

As a result, she says, Tesla is monitoring research and regulations  
around the issue as it might affect its $109,000 two-seater, but  
probably won't add
a noisemaker unless there is a "compelling reason."


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