[Travelandtourism] Should Electric Cars Sound Like Traditional Cars, Or Something Else?

[Alexa]

If it weren't for the partial sight I have, I wouldn't know when there is a
quiet car in front of me. I don't know what sound a quiet car should have,
but a sound of some sort will prevent pedestrian casualties.

-----Original Message-----
From: Travelandtourism [mailto:travelandtourism-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Hai Nguyen Ly
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 12:23 PM
To: NFB Travel and Tourism Division List
Subject: [Travelandtourism] Should Electric Cars Sound Like Traditional
Cars, Or Something Else?


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/electric-car-sound-quiet_n_2950001.
html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Should Electric Cars Sound Like Traditional Cars, Or Something Else?

Electric cars are quiet. Too quiet. One of the biggest virtues of the
battery vehicle is that it is virtually silent in operation. And heaven
knows, in today's marketplace, the EV needs every advantage it can get. But
a quiet car can be a deadly car for the blind or disabled, and that's led to
federal government rulemaking that will require EVs to produce some kind of
sound until they reach 17 mph. Exactly what those sounds will be is now
being hotly debated.

I talked to Wade Newton of the Auto Alliance, which represents 12 carmakers
and filed public comments last week looking to postpone the federal rule,
and highly critical of the form it takes now. The alliance is walking a fine
line - it supports the federal rule in principle, but doesn't want consumers
to be turned off by noisy, annoying EVs. It's also worried about cost.

"Let the engineers figure out the best way to make it work," Newton said.
"We want a car to sound like a car, and we want some level of
differentiation within a basic framework - so a sedan might sound slightly
different than a coupe, for example. And if the sound is audible to the
motorist, we want it to be relatively pleasing to them. But no one wants a
wild west of different ringtones."

Ah, ringtones. When I talk to people about this, they invariably get
captivated by the idea of having the car produce its own personalized
ringtone - a "signature" sound, so to speak. But think about it a bit: an
unfamiliar ringtone conveys no recognizable message to a blind person, who's
going to hear what could be a passing car radio. The alliance calls the
ringtone thing "a Pandora's box," and that's about it. 

Newton also points out another big problem. "Any sound the car produces will
be heard very differently in Times Square and a rural road in upstate New
York," he said. So do you optimize the sound for loud environments or quiet
ones?

The automakers also want the sound to cut off at 12.4 mph, not 18.6, because
they say above that speed tire noise makes the car audible anyway. The
federal rule is supposed to begin phasing in September of 2014, but the
carmakers want to forget phasing it in and delay implementation to 2018.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates the
cost at $30 to $35 per car, but the alliance says it's way higher. The
safety agency says it's a vital matter of, well, safety. "NHTSA estimates
that if this proposal were implemented, there would be 2,800 fewer
pedestrian and pedalcyclist injuries over the life of each model year of
hybrid cars, trucks and vans and low-speed vehicles, as compared to vehicles
without sound," the agency said.

The National Federation of the Blind is highly supportive of the legislation
and was instrumental in shaping it. "Quiet vehicles are highly problematic
for blind pedestrians, who depend on the sound emitted by cars in order to
travel safely and independently. "We feel strongly that the industry must
take measures to insure the safety of blind and sighted pedestrians," NFB
says. "We believe that vehicles can be designed to emit an inoffensive sound
that will give pedestrians the information they need."

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