[Missouri-l] Fw: [Leadership] Hybrid Cars May Include Fake Vroom for Safety -NYTimes.com

[Chip Hailey]

> Hybrid Cars May Include Fake Vroom for Safety - NYTimes.com
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/automobiles/14hybrid.html?hp
>
> By JIM MOTAVALLI
> Published: October 13, 2009
>
> For decades, automakers have been on a quest to make cars quieter: an auto
> that purrs, and glides almost silently in traffic.
> Kevin Walsh, an engineer, monitored waves from sounds that Fisker
> Automotive Inc. developed to use on their hybrid car.
>
> They have finally succeeded. Plug-in hybrid and
> electric cars,
> it turns out, not only reduce air pollution, they cut noise pollution as
> well with their whisper-quiet motors. But that has created a different
> problem.
> They aren't noisy enough.
>
> So safety experts, worried that hybrids pose a threat if pedestrians,
> children and others can't hear them approaching, want automakers to supply
> some digitally
> enhanced vroom. Indeed, just as cellphones have ring tones, "car tones" 
> may
> not be far behind - an option for owners of electric vehicles to choose 
> the
> sound their cars emit.
>
> Working with Hollywood special-effects wizards, some hybrid auto companies
> have started tinkering in sound studios, rather than machine shops, to
> customize
> engine noises. The Fisker Karma, an $87,900 plug-in hybrid expected to go
> on sale next year, will emit a sound - pumped out of speakers in the 
> bumpers
> - that the company founder, Henrik Fisker, describes as "a cross between a
> starship and a
> Formula One
> car."
>
> Nissan is also consulting with the film industry on sounds that could be
> emitted by its forthcoming Leaf battery-electric vehicle, while
> Toyota
> has been working with the
> National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,
> the National Federation of the Blind and the Society of Automotive
> Engineers on sounds for electric vehicles.
>
> "One possibility is choosing your own noise," said Nathalie Bauters, a
> spokeswoman for
> BMW
> 's Mini division, who added that such technology could be added to one of
> BMW's electric vehicles in the future.
>
> The notion that battery E.V.'s and plug-in hybrids might be too quiet has
> gained backing in Congress, among federal regulators and on the Internet. 
> The
> Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, introduced early this year,
> would require a federal safety standard to protect pedestrians from
> ultra-quiet
> cars.
>
> Karen Aldana, a spokeswoman for traffic safety agency, which is also
> working on the issue, said, "We're looking at data on noise and E.V.
> safety, but manufacturers
> are starting to address it voluntarily."
>
> A Toyota spokesman, John Hanson, said: "I don't know of any injuries
> related to this, but it is a concern. We are moving rapidly toward broader
> use of electrification
> in vehicles, and it's a fact that these cars are very quiet and could pose
> a risk to unsighted people."
>
> A study published last year by the
> University of California,
> Riverside and financed by the National Federation of the Blind evaluated
> the effect of sounds emitted by hybrid and internal-combustion cars
> traveling at
> 5 miles per hour.
>
> People listening in a lab could correctly detect a gas-powered car's
> approach when it was 28 feet away, but could not hear the arrival of a
> hybrid operating
> in silent battery mode until it was only seven feet away.
>
> Some electric-vehicle drivers have taken a low-tech approach to alerting
> pedestrians. When Paul Scott of Santa Monica, Calif., drives his 2002
> Toyota RAV4
> electric car, he often rolls down the windows along busy streets and turns
> up his radio so people know his virtually silent vehicle is there.
>
> Mr. Scott, vice president of the advocacy group Plug In America, said he
> would prefer giving drivers control over whether the motor makes noise,
> unlike,
> say, the Fisker Karma, which will make its warning noise automatically.
>
> "Quiet cars need to stay quiet - we worked so hard to make them that way,"
> he said. "It's the driver's responsibility not to hit somebody."
>
> Mr. Scott has already warmed up to the idea of a car ring tone.
>
> "It should be a manually operated noisemaker, a button on the steering
> wheel triggering a recording of your choice," he said. "It could play
> 'In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida,'
> or anything you like."
>
>
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