The auto industry for decades worked to make cars as quiet as possible. With electric cars the near ultimate has been achieved — virtually no noise at all.
But we may have a problem. To be more specific, pedestrians may have a problem. And if you’re a blind pedestrian used to hearing cars coming, there may really be a problem.
“I think we’re going to have people die,” said Gary Wunder, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri. “Anything that can outweigh a pedestrian by two tons needs to make a sound.”
Last summer, a blind woman in Kansas City, Kan., had a very close call. She wasn’t hit, but her white cane was run over and broken, she suspects by a hybrid vehicle.
Initially, the concerns of the blind and other pedestrians didn’t appear to be taken all that seriously. After all, American motorists kill around 4,500 pedestrians each year and injure 70,000 others, with no notable campaigns to curb that carnage.
But this time may be different, given the prospect of millions of electric or hybrid cars on the streets in the next few years.
Some automakers are already making plans to have their electric cars emit some kind of noise, at least until they pass 10 miles an hour, when tires on pavement and other road noise are easy to hear.
Nissan is planning a futuristic whirring sound for its electrics — something like the hovering craft in “Blade Runner.” The Chevrolet Volt, which will debut next year, also will emit a special noise, although drivers will be able to turn it off.
Congress also has gotten involved with the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, which ordered a federal agency to study the issue and consider recommending a minimum amount of sound for electrics and any other alternative-fueled vehicles in the future that make little noise.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers for more than a year has been studying the issue and considering how the industry should deal with it.
“It’s definitely something we’re taking a look at,” said Wade Newton, a spokesman for the alliance.
The issue of noise and motorized vehicles has a history. There were worries when the first “motor cars” hit the road that their noise would startle horses, sending them and the carriages they pulled swerving off the road. In the 1960s, a throaty muffler was a badge of honor for muscle cars and a symbol of performance.
But in general, consumers wanted quieter cars, and the automakers complied, although with the internal combustion engine there was always some noise. Electric cars are taking it to the next level, and the quiet appears to be a new badge of honor for a very different type of car.
Which is why there has been something of a backlash over the idea that electric cars need to be noisier. At least some owners of the Prius, the most popular hybrid, are appalled by the thought of installing speakers to emit some kind of noise.
George Margolin, co-founder of the Orange County Prius Club in California, asks where it will all end. Perhaps to help the hearing-impaired, he says, automakers should install strobe lights to make sure they see the vehicles.
“Guys they are the wave of the near future so live with it,” he said in an e-mail.
But blind people “just want to travel independently,” Wunder said, which won’t be easy if more cars run silently.
The blind use engine noise for more than just knowing a car is approaching. Idling engines, for example, are a sign of a line of cars at a stoplight. Indeed, the National Federation of the Blind is concerned that automakers could become a bit too creative and equip their electric cars with all sorts of sounds that could still make it hard to figure out whether a vehicle or vehicles are around.
