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posted by martyb on Wednesday November 16 2016, @03:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the fake-engine-noises-FTW-Vrrrm-Vrrrm! dept.

A US road safety body has demanded that electric cars travelling at low speed make a noise to warn pedestrians.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the rule was needed because battery-powered vehicles are very quiet.

It said the rule would particularly help blind pedestrians, or those with a visual impairment, detect electric cars and hybrids on the road.

The new safety rule could help prevent 2,400 injuries a year, said the NHTSA.

The rule demands that the cars make a noise when travelling either forwards or backwards at speeds of less than 30kmh (19mph). The regulation covers vehicles with four wheels that weigh less than 10,000 pounds (4.5 tonnes).

The safety specification requires car makers to use a two-tone signal similar to that currently emitted by heavy vehicles when they are reversing.

It would be more fun if drivers could customize what that sound is, such as "La Cucaracha" or the whine of a Shadow vessel.

Electric and hybrid cars are to include a noise generation device for travel at low speeds with no internal combustion engine: http://www.nhtsa.gov/About-NHTSA/Press-Releases/nhtsa_quiet_car_final_rule_11142016.

There goes my quiet electric future.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by iamjacksusername on Wednesday November 16 2016, @07:16PM

    by iamjacksusername (1479) on Wednesday November 16 2016, @07:16PM (#427697)

    I think you have a great point with regards to blinking lights; we are reaching a point of information saturation. I recall in article talking about how the US has significantly more road signage per mile than Europe. There is an upper limit to how much information a person can process in a timely and useful manner and I think we are desperately trying to find it with the proliferation of boops, beeps, blinking lights, and signs of all sizes. I know I have gotten to unfamiliar areas and had to pull over to understand the what all the 6 different signs were telling me.

    As someone who has to drive at night, I like the blinking break lights because it tells me when the person in front of me has stomped on their breaks. Which happens a lot. That said, you cannot look at these changes in isolation. Between blinking break lights, blinking traffic lights, construction warnings, smart-phone GPS flashing warning and audio cues, incoming calls and all the other assorted information bric-a-brac that drivers are expected to see and act on, there are a lot of things competing for a driver's limited attention. I can relate, on several times, navigating an unfamiliar area via my GPS and then having an incoming call ringing and the call screen blocking the map screen just as I am about to make a critical turn in a very busy intersection. It is jarring and potentially dangerous, particularly if you are trying to follow a series of quick turns on a road you have never been on before.

    On a somewhat related note, I recently replaced my car with an old car from the pre-bluetooth era. As I could not pair the phone with my car, I stashed it in my bag. I could not answer calls, putter with my streaming music channel or anything else. It really made me realize how much attention I was giving my phone before, even thogh I had a full hands-free, voice activated setup in my old car.

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  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday November 16 2016, @10:41PM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday November 16 2016, @10:41PM (#427824)

    *brake

    Your reasoning is why crazy new traffic patterns tick me off. More than once it's been a place where I can't stop and look around to figure out where I'm supposed to be driving and I just had to cross my fingers and take my best guess and hope that somebody didn't slam into me half a second later :P

    Specifically, roundabouts crammed into unexpected places, and intersections with too many branches where you're trying to figure out if they're one-way.

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"