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

[peter altschul]

October 14, 2009
Hybrid Cars May Include Fake Vroom for Safety

By JIM MOTAVALLI
For decades, automakers have been on a quest to make cars 
quieter: an
auto that purrs, and glides almost silently in traffic.

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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