Electric Cars – Silent Killers or Space-Age Nuisances?

New electric cars such as the Subaru R1e, the Nissan Leaf and the Toyota Prius are largely silent when they are idling or moving at low speeds.  The problem with this is that people often rely on hearing in addition to eyesight to “watch” for cars when crossing the street.  The problem intensifies for a person who is missing one of these senses.  The blind rely on hearing to know when to cross and if a car is coming.  Although this isn’t a problem just for the blind  It could be an issue for others who rely on the same audio cues (like cyclists) or as a last-minute warning after doing the standard “look both ways before crossing the street” instilled (read: drilled) into most of us by our parents.

Allegedly, this is so much of a problem that members of Congress introduced a bill in January 2009 whose purpose is to “direct the Secretary of Transportation to study and establish a motor vehicle safety standard that provides for a means of alerting blind and other pedestrians of motor vehicle operation.”  Although “federal traffic safety regulators report that no deaths or serious injuries have been attributed to quiet-running hybrids”, there is at least one report of a blind person having her foot run over in a parking lot.

So who would benefit from this legislation?  Those who advocate adding some kind of audio device to the cars primarily proffer the blind as an example, but also claim it could benefit other members of society, including other pedestrians, joggers, cyclists, the elderly, pets, and even those who may have their back turned to an oncoming electric vehicle.  Of course, the more cynical among us may add the manufacturers of these audio devices to the list of beneficiaries. 

But is this legislation truly necessary?  The blind typically carry a cane to assist with their navigation and/or have a seeing-eye dog.  The hard of hearing have hearing aids.  Some people say joggers should probably take the ear buds out and pay attention to the world around them.  Congress appears to take this assertion, that electric vehicles are silent killers, as fact.  In H.R. 734, Section 3 (6) states that “when operating on their electric engines, hybrid vehicles cannot be heard by blind people and others, rendering such vehicles extremely dangerous…”  However, a research project at U.C. Riverside funded by the National Federation of the Blind is taking a more scientific approach than just asserting this as true.  Audio recordings made of hybrid and combustion engine cars travelling at 5 miles per hour were played to subjects listening in a lab.  According to the study, “subjects could correctly judge the approach of the combustion car when it was about 28 feet away . . .  but they could only judge the hybrid's approach direction when it was seven feet away" effectively allowing them one second to evade the car.

Although this does leave a few questions with the study (such as were they using blind people as subjects or the sighted), regardless of your position, it at least indicates that this issue has the potential to be a problem.  So much so that a few schools are already including electric and hybrid cars in their training program and others are teaching the dogs to recognize cars by sight and not sound.  For example, training schools such as Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael and Guide Dogs of the Desert near Palm Springs have added hybrid cars to their training regimens. 

However, two questions remain largely unanswered.  One, are electric cars so dangerous to require legislation and two, is adding some kind of audio device to them going to be the best solution?

Although the electric and hybrid cars are largely silent they can be heard at closer distances and are able to be heard when running at about 25 miles per hour due to road noise, the increased effort of the electric engine, and wind resistance.  As such, this alert would need to be activated only when running below a certain speed.  Nissan is considering adding an alert that would signal as long as the car was running under 12 miles per hour.  Although initially it could be viewed as a good idea, it raises more questions than I am able to answer.

Would it actually prevent the issues associated with silent cars?  Would this requirement to have these installed be on the manufacturer or on the end consumer?  Would the end consumer be allowed to remove or modify these devices? 

Imagine if these alerts were programmable much like cell phone ringtones are today.  Who would decide which noises were approved?  For that matter, who would decide what the noise could be?  Nissan has referred to their alert as a sound reminiscent of Blade Runner while some have advocated for thesound effect from the Jetsons' car.  Joanna Holguin, a UNC School of Law student, suggested we simply make the audible alert play a recording of a car. 

Would this be expanded to all electric vehicles?  All vehicles?  Slower moving combustion engine vehicles can be difficult to hear as well.  What about golf-carts, bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, and bears, oh my?  How far do we take it?  YouTube user “emforty2” commented that “an elephant walking down the road is also quiet, especially if your [sic] deaf.”

In a world filled with enough noise pollution to have health risks associated with it, one could easily imagine how this could be taken too far.  Additional noises could violate nuisance laws.  Some of you might recall Bubb Rubb and Li’l Sis speaking about a new trend with tailpipe whistles also known as a “whistle tip”. 

Would the device need to be louder during the day as it competes with ambient noise than it is at night?  Could or would it have to pass through ambient road noise of cars, trucks, diesels, etc. without penetrating further than that actual noise it is meant to penetrate?  How loud is loud enough?  How quiet is too quiet?  Who would determine this?  How would it be enforced?  How much will it cost?  Is it even the best or effective answer in light of these problems?  What about when the car is in reverse?

Regardless of what research reveals, I hope we all realize the solution is about as simple as the one in presented in Aesop’s “Belling the Cat.”  While it could be seen as a good idea, there are myriad other questions and problems that come along with it.  I hope we take the time to answer them before saying (and Congress doing) the first thing that comes to mind.