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from the fake-engine-noises-FTW-Vrrrm-Vrrrm! dept.
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.
(Score: 2) by Popeidol on Thursday November 17 2016, @03:52PM
Both you and the parent are missing one key thing: You're now placing the personal freedom and life of an individual in the hands of a small, battery driven, electronic device. It's prone to failure, interference, and anything covered by insurance will be a separate unit and cost thousands. You're also suggesting that most blind people go around with earphones in all the time, reducing the effectiveness of their primary sense.
People have been predicting electronic devices to support the blind for years. Electric cane prototypes have been around for quite a while. The fact is that most blind people rely on very manual means to get around: guide dogs, canes, or just their own senses. This isn't because nobody has produced an effective electronic equivalent, it's because the old options have very good failure modes. You aren't going to be away overnight and have your cane suddenly stop working half way home, and a dog usually gives some warning signs before it quits on you.
Right now, some governments are pretty good at mandating what cars can do. There are already a stack of required standards, and a noisy car helps more than just the blind: inattentive kids playing next to the road in quiet areas, people who just get distracted, etc. This is probably the best way to handle the problem right now without killing a bunch of people. Standards will change in the future but are unlikely to go away completely - Look at mandatory lighting on boats and planes, we could have dispensed with that long ago but having an obvious sensory reminder is useful.
The method that you are suggesting would also mean that, for a group of people with no choice in the matter, their freedom of movement and safety is limited to a device as reliable as a three-year-old smartphone. Give it a decade or two and we might get there but right now there is no way a half-decent government would consider it.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Thursday November 17 2016, @05:30PM
That is actually also a definition of the cars themselves, but an rf-emitter is less likely to be tampered with (by its owner) than a beeping speaker.
No, I didn't, I suggested a noisemaker for the blind, and also using this system to warn others as well.
As an aside - I know more blind people with smell as their primary sense rather than hearing.
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I never suggested smartphones for the blind (I did suggest noisemakers for them).
However, I have yet to meet a car (and I have met a few PEVs) that is quiet, the noise of tires are very loud once you've learned how to spot it (I tend to hear bicycles over the music I'n listening to (in-ear earphones) when I'm out walking, and I am sighted) - I would be curious to hear from a blind reader about this.
/Aside/
Come to think about it - can't remember the last time I noticed the sound of a non-stationary car's engine prior to the noise its tires made (ICE are vastly more common where I walk)
/end aside/
(Also, another advantage with an rf-to-noisemaker, you can warn for other stuff as well - like tables on the walkway, signs, fenced of areas, motorcycles and such)