Car Sounds and EVs
Filed Under: green automotive technology on June 8, 2010
Well, it’s been a couple of years since it was an issue, but Consumer Reports is saying that after the NHTSA’s little report
(the one that ignored the fact that hybrids are more likely to be in urban environments where they..gasp.. might hit pedestrians more often), recommendations are to mandate “sounds” for electric vehicles. Everybody and their brother is behind this one, including some car manufacturers, so it’s probably going to happen. Great. The bureaucrats get another win.
Back in 2008, I wrote about the (then Vaporware) Chevy Volt and how lawyers engineers were planning to add Star Trekkie sounds to the car to make it “audible” for blind people and such. Hilariously, their press release actually said “blind and deaf persons.” Like deaf people will magically be able to hear sci-fi noises.
Anyway, my point in that article still stands now.
First, the “fix” won’t really solve anything since I doubt that electric vehicles are any more of a danger to pedestrians than are other cars. You can’t hear my wife’s Honda running from five feet away and it’s a gas motor. Even my neighbor’s brand new Cadillac SUV (not the Escalade, the other one) is extremely quiet. What’s the difference?
On the up side, as I stated then, I’ll reiterate now.. these noises will be electronic and therefore hackable. So expect people like me to make their cars sound like the Jetsons flier or a tractor (complete with backfires). Expect my neighbor (not the one with the SUV, the other one) to pimp porno tracks from his.
I mean, hell, it took hackers just a couple of hours to tear up the new iPad and make it do stuff it shouldn’t. I doubt it would take anyone long to do the same to their Volt or Leaf.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by cleancartalk, Aaron Turpen. Aaron Turpen said: Car Sounds and EVs http://www.aaronsenvironmental.com/2010/06/car-sounds-and-evs/ [...]