Electric Cars May Be Made Noisier By Law 620
msgtomatt writes "The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act would require electric cars and hybrids to make noise, and would fund the Department of Transportation to create a set of rules for automakers, who would be allowed some leeway in how they carry out the guidelines." Downloadable and do-it-yourself car-tones are the future: my own snoring could keep deer and toddlers off the road.
The sound I want (Score:5, Funny)
I want a recording of an eight year old making car revving noises.
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Cue the Crazy Frog making vroom-vroom/ding-a-ding-ding noises... Like we need to hear that again. I'd be more likely to step out in front of such cars so I wouldn't ever have to hear that again.
Red Flag (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd be more likely to step out in front of such cars so I wouldn't ever have to hear that again.
There may be more of a future in that than you suppose. I expect that we'll regress to having a person walk in front of such vehicles, waving a red flag to warn bystanders of its approach.
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I used to have a 911 Turbo...and man, that thing was great. It had a very low rumble with the Borla exhaust..going through parking decks was fun when it would set off numerous car alarms that were set too sensitive, and God help you if I was going under a bridge or the like and the turbo kicked in...I've had pedestrians diving for the sides of the road not knowing what it was.
We should really have a name for people like you who are so thrilled with making loud noises.
oh wait, we do. "Children"
Re:Forget that (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Forget that (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes,
I think parking lots are the single most likely place for anyone, deaf or not, to be clipped by a silent car.
I was almost clipped when a Prius suddenly started backing up as I was walking along the parked cars.
But this could be fixed by requiring a 'backup beeper'
Re:The sound I want (Score:5, Funny)
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In case your not joking, you should know that brass instruments (and unfortunately the vuvuzela falls in the same category even though it is not brass but plastic) do not produce sound by simply having wind go through them. Only flutes and whistles do that. Vuvuzelas, like trumpets, trombones, and French horns (that's the one I play) rely on the vibration of the players lips for sound production. Just blowing through them will make a slight whooshing sound appropriate for many /. comments, but no definite p
Re:The sound I want (Score:4, Interesting)
How about George Jetson's bubble car sound?
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Re:The sound I want (Score:5, Funny)
Ferrari from India (Score:2)
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I want one that makes the Pacman wakka-wakka dot-munching noise as it goes up the road!
(Would be even better if you could eat a power pill and make the traffic cops turn blue and run away...)
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The sound of two coconuts banging together.
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My first choice would be maniacal laughter, second would be the sound of a steam locomotive...
--
Tomas
Re:The sound I want (Score:4, Funny)
Because you really wanted to be known as "Tomas the (Psychotic) Tank Engine"?
Me drive car! (Score:3)
Re:The sound I want (Score:5, Funny)
I never understand all the fuss with the "what's the sound of one hand clapping" : i tried it , it makes exactly the same sound as 2 hands clapping , just less loud .
Yeah i was thinking about that. (Score:2)
Re:Yeah i was thinking about that. (Score:5, Insightful)
Really, to be consistent, it should apply to all cars, not just electrics. Even with the motor running, a coasting car can be hard to hear.
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Even better: how about 'It should apply to all OBJECTS'. Every single object, mobile or immobile should emit a different tone constantly.
That's why futuristic cities are built out of glass: the whole mass is one great big set of chimes.
Re:Yeah i was thinking about that. (Score:5, Insightful)
Great idea, and to be able to sleep within city limits all you have to do is get your eardrums punctured.
Re:Yeah i was thinking about that. (Score:5, Insightful)
I disagree.
No cars should make noise. Its an arms race.
Instead of taking the advent of electric vehicles as an opportunity to quiet our cities, requiring them to make more noise seems counter productive.
Make them all quiet enough and you will be able to hear the tire noise.
Cover that noise with a louder noise and pretty soon all you know is its noisy and you can't hear the cars because they disappear into the noise.
Ok, Won't somebody please think of the Blind!!??
Yeah. Why not equip the blind with the sensors that they need to detect large/fast moving objects instead of equipping all large moving objects with noise makers to be drowner out by other noise makers.
Relying on everything that might hurt you to carry a warning is just counter-productive and costly. Hear nothing, step off the curb and get hit by a bike messenger, or a car with a defective noise maker.
Re:Yeah i was thinking about that. (Score:5, Insightful)
Instead of taking the advent of electric vehicles as an opportunity to quiet our cities, requiring them to make more noise seems counter productive.
Yeah, that's ridiculous. Why don't we make electric cars stink as well so that the deaf can keep on hating them too ? And while we are at it force all cars owners to have a buggy whip.
Re:Yeah i was thinking about that. (Score:5, Insightful)
I drive a diesel around the city all day every day. Pedestrians walk out in front of vehicles no matter now much noise they make.
Re:Yeah i was thinking about that. (Score:4, Interesting)
+1 Harrison Bergeron.
Really though, precisely how loud is NY City without auto noise? It might just be a rustle of footsteps, but fairly quiet and peaceful.
Maybe it would stop crime because you can hear someone holler when a purse gets snatched.
Re:Yeah i was thinking about that. (Score:5, Interesting)
This is actually an old story. Originally marketing and PR firms noted that cars produce distinctive engine noise that promote the label and with electric cars this would be gone, hence they worked on the idea of electric cars making marketing driving noise and seeking excuses to force it on customers.
This bit of legislative douchery is the means by which they can enforce it. They admit that above 20km per hour tyre noise is sufficient to alert pedestrians and below 20km per hour, well excuse me but if you hit a pedestrian below 20 km per hour your not paying attention. Even at low speeds rolling resistance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_resistance [wikipedia.org] is a measure of tyre flex, hence abrasion and noise.
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I know people have no problem hearing the tyre noise from my bicycle as I approach, they often turn round, see that there's plenty of space for a bicycle to pass them, and continue.
However, they can't hear it if there's noise from other cars' engines. But if there's that much background noise, I don't see how adding to it helps a blind person.
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Even with the motor running, a coasting car can be hard to hear.
Making noise is the shittiest of workarounds and by no means a fix.
Our local approach, now that's a solution: we build infrastructure for different types of traffic while minimizing yet clearly marking level crossings. There are virtually no busy roads without sidewalks within city limits where I live, most even have parallel bicycle lanes as well. I can safely frollick across town with earplugs in playing loud music: other than the designated crossings I simply don't share infrastructure with bikes or cars
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Really, to be consistent, it should apply to all cars, not just electrics. Even with the motor running, a coasting car can be hard to hear.
Totally disagree. When I was in grad school, the busses at the school had a diesel engine in the rear, making them pretty much impossible to hear approaching until it would be too late. Why are electric cars different? What makes blind people able to deal with busses like that but not electric cars?
Re:Yeah i was thinking about that. (Score:5, Insightful)
Really, huh? Last time I checked they still taught "FIRST look left, THEN look right, THEN cross the streets" to our kids, did they forgo that in your country?
I honestly don't get it. How is it safer for pedestrians if cars make noises? First, are there not traffic lights in your country? At least where it counts, i.e. where there's actually a chance to meet a car on the road? Are there no pedestrian crossing areas on your roads? Along with pedestrian traffic lights telling you when it's safe to walk? Are drivers in your country so reckless that they ignore those traffic lights that LOOKING ain't enough to cross the road safely, you have to listen?
And most of all, are there still teenagers in your country that remove those iPod earphones from time to time from their ears?
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You don't have blind people in your country? People always look left and right properly and are never alerted by the sound of a car?
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Yeah i was thinking about that. (Score:5, Insightful)
Almost ALL of the demand for noise makers on cars comes from the blind lobby.
In a quieter world, the blind would hear the tire noise just fine.
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For the rest: If you don't look both ways evolution is at work.
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Natural Selection at work. Quiet cars are a good thing.
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I don't know about you, but electric cars aren't everywhere. I don't recall ever having seen a fully electric car on the road yet, the closest being a gas-electric Prius.
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I saw an all electric vehicle once. It was crazy. I was replacing the water pump on my 1996 Geo Prism in a restaurant parking lot that was next door to a hooker hotel (literally, a hotel frequented mostly by hookers). When I looked up, there were ten SWAT guys jumping out of a black APC-looking thing. Fully armored, the works. I never even heard it pull up and I was only 20 feet away. I was talking to one of the cops after the SWAT truck left (the crime scene still had to be taken care of, and the criminals
Your not fooling anyone. (Score:2)
With the recorded sound of a blown 454.
Why trust your ears? Unless you're blind that is (Score:5, Insightful)
Obviously, the below statements do not take into consideration those that are visually impaired. But that final point (Road Noise) probably already handles most of that.
I'm sorry, but I never trust my ears when deciding whether to cross the street. Even if I'm in a fairly quiet suburban road off away from the main streets and such, I always look. And you want to know what? I learned to do that at a really young age.
If you're an adult, you should know better. I see adults cross the street without looking while on the phone and not even notice me beeping at them. And this was back when I drove a beat up car that sounded like a Boeing 747.
As for kids, I'm sorry to say but a lot are either stupid or their parents are doing a really poor job raising them. I've seen the whole "chase the ball into traffic" scenario when they SEE the cars coming and assume that magic fairy dust will make the SUV go from 25-to-zero in less than 3 feet. Often times these kids are really old enough to know better: by the time your kid reaches 10+ years old you really should've educated them to not do that.
Besides, lastly but not least... unless the car is accelerating the biggest noise is the road noise (pavement vs vulcanized rubber). Last I checked, electric cars don't solve this problem. If you're relying on Engine noise to determine if a car is coming, you're already fairly screwed.
Re:Why trust your ears? Unless you're blind that i (Score:4, Interesting)
I see adults cross the street without looking while on the phone and not even notice me beeping at them. And this was back when I drove a beat up car that sounded like a Boeing 747
Amen to that brother.
The thing that floors me is that people get hit by trains. TRAINS! We're talking like five-thousand plus tons of steel rumbling down a track, and people don't notice. How is this even possible? How self-absorbed do you have to be to notice a freaking TRAIN. I used to live not far from a freight line and the whole bloody ground shook when a train went by...
Re:Why trust your ears? Unless you're blind that i (Score:5, Informative)
Here is Sydney, the trains are quite large, double storey and mainly 8 cars long [sydneytrains.com.au] but even with that they are almost silent as they approach.
Secondly, even if you see a train, the stopping distance is so long that if you trip, fall, whatever while it is approaching, it won't likely stop in time to not hit you.
Finally, you would be surprised about how many accidents involving people and trains are not accidents at all.
The Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics (BTRE) suggests that the main issues for rail safety in Australia are suicides, level crossing accidents and pedestrians struck by trains (BTRE 2002).
This is directly from a report published using data obtained [flinders.edu.au] (link to full PDF) from our Bereau of Transportation.
Well in the US (Score:3)
Trains are hard to miss. The actual train itself, well it isn't all the loud. The big diesels are very low frequency and the wheels make surprisingly little noise. You feel it, more than hear it, and then only as it is passing you.
HOWEVER you do hear them because at every rail road crossing they blow their horns and those things are fit to wake the dead. They are required by law, and they do, to sound their horn as they approach a crossing. You cannot miss the sound. At close range it is over 120dB, so you
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Trains in the US also go relatively slowly. Most (perhaps all?) tracks in the UK are fenced off. The rails are welded, and the expansion joints are tapered, so there isn't a "clackity-clack" noise. The locomotive may well be electric, or there might not be a locomotive -- instead there might be smaller electric motors on several axles through the train. It's more like "ssssssSSSSHHH-ompff-ompff-ompff-ompff-ompff-ompff-ompff-ompff-ompff-ssssh" (e.g. here [youtube.com]).
There's still the occasional death, typically on a l
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Tracks in the States tend to be welded, as well, unless it's a particularly old line that isn't frequently used. Our lines are not generally fenced -- generally, not at all. And, as you say, trains move relatively slowly here (generally 55MPH, IIRC).
But our trains are LOUD. Huge diesel-electric locomotives, sometimes three or four of them, all grunting along and pulling enormous quantities of cars. Our signalling system is antique in design, relying on physical gaps in the track to trigger things like c
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Here is Sydney, the trains are quite large, double storey and mainly 8 cars long [sydneytrains.com.au] but even with that they are almost silent as they approach.
Those are passenger trains. They're relatively light and as you say, you don't really hear them. The GP was talking about freight trains, which is mostly what we have in the US. I camped near a rail line once for a couple days, and the difference between the two was night and day - the freight trains rumbled like nothing else, but the passenger trains felt like it was just an engine rolling past.
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Well, I'm ready to get modded down myself for calling an idiot an idiot, because awareness doesn't have a fucking thing to do with common sense, and you're an idiot for thinking it does. Awareness is a function of mental alertness and fatigue levels. If you're tired, it takes more effort to focus on your task at hand, leaving you less capacity for awareness of other factors. Further, modern society blasts a person with constant visual and aural input, increasing mental fatigue more quickly than in previous
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You don't rely on the sound alone, but it does help especially as you said, with people who are visually impaired. Cars make quite a bit of noise at highway speeds but at lower speeds, there is less noise produced from the interaction between the tires and pavement. As far as peoples' behavior is concerned, it probably doesn't justify their deaths.
Re:Why trust your ears? Unless you're blind that i (Score:5, Insightful)
It's probably smarter and more cost effective to equip the visually impaired with a sonar-type device than to force *every* (i'm thinking future) vehicle to maintain noise pollution for such a small number of people.
Who is responsible? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're an adult, you should know better. I see adults cross the street without looking while on the phone and not even notice me beeping at them. And this was back when I drove a beat up car that sounded like a Boeing 747.
For every adult pedestrian who's been hit for jaywalking while talking on their cell phone without looking, there's another who got hit in a signaled crosswalk by a driver on a cell phone who checked only the oncoming vehicle traffic before pulling out, a guy who had a car door opened in his face while riding a bicycle in a marked lane, or a pedestrian who got hit by a car on the god damn sidewalk. I've been hit all three of those ways.
I'm sick of self-righteous, insouciant comments such as yours (see also http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/09/19/2026211 [slashdot.org]) about how stupid pedestrians are, about how it's just legislation to protect idiots, etc. If you're driving 4,000 pounds of steel you have to be more careful than the guy driving 175 pounds of meat, and guy driving the meat deserves some extra warning, including an auditory warning, when you're not doing your job. If he walks out without looking, you hit him and he dies. If you fuck up, you hit him and he dies. Staying alive is all on the pedestrian, no matter who would be legally at fault if they get hit. Don't act like they're all idiots and pedestrian safety is a trivial problem and this just one more step into a total abdication of personal responsibility. This is serious stuff and I believe the majority of people who get hit by cars were not stupid and not doing the wrong thing. Your snarky anecdotes about idiot children and cell phone users are a strawman, drawing all attention away from the thousands of pedestrians who get hit and killed by bad drivers while the pedestrians were doing everything right.
Re:Who is responsible? (Score:4, Informative)
"A biker can turn on a dime, stop on a dime, and swerve in the blink of an eye."
What? Have you ever ridden a bike?
I got into a biking accident last month - an oncoming SUV took a left turn in front of me. I slammed on my brakes, turned my front wheel to skid, and still smashed into its side at normal cruising speed. Luckily I just had a couple scrapes and a gash in the inside of my lip, but the reality is, most bicyclists can't stop easily, and usually when they do have to make a hard stop, it's flesh and/or bone against a solid surface.
Re:Who is responsible? (Score:5, Insightful)
I've got to agree with the other guy. The apparent sleekness of bikers may be misguiding. It looks like a biker turns on a dime, and yes, once the turn starts, it's pretty narrow. But if a biker turns the handle bar like a car driver, he'll just fall. Rapid braking, sharp turning, this all requires preparation - shift your body weight, turn minimally to the other side, let the bike dip towards the curve a little, move your weight backwards. The sharp turn at high speed itself takes 2-3s but the biker took another 2-3s to prepare for it. I have very good brakes in my bike but if I use them, I'll fall over the handle bars, hitting the road face first. So I have to brake the hind brake lightly, shifting my weight, bracing myself, and only then I can depress front brake fully, and go to a standstill from a rather high speed in a matter of 5-10 meters... after starting braking good 20 meters earlier.
Unexpected rapid turn is very difficult to execute. You don't get a dip deep enough so your turning radius won't be short enough... and you slam whatever obstacle appeared. Add some slippery surface where the bike will skid, which is very nice when you're about to stop but very dangerous if your speed is still too high (and totally kills any ability to turn controllably) and you have a crash ready.
whoosh - the red flag act (Score:3)
Well done. Yes, safety regulation is about finding the proper balance between risk and inconvenience.
"Well done" :-), you completely missed the historical reference [wikimedia.org] and hence the joke.
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If you're relying on Engine noise to determine if a car is coming, you're already fairly screwed.
I agree with your post completely. I would like to add that in the city, I am primarily a cyclist; thus, my vehicle is even quieter than an electric vehicle (even when freewheeling). You would not believe the number of pedestrians who dart out onto the street in front of me without looking. Luckily, unlike a car, I am (in good weather) usually capable of going from 20 to 0 in a ridiculously short distance.
The real solution to this problem is to look before you cross the street. I realize this doesn't help v
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I would assume that they would have to start imposing noise levels (on the low range) for gas cars too.
Re:Why trust your ears? Unless you're blind that i (Score:5, Insightful)
You didn't read the first sentence of his post? Are you blind?!
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You guys don't have reverse lights?
Also, why not just do as the rest of us and require lights to be on at all times when driving?
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Parking lots (Score:5, Interesting)
More than once I've had to side step quickly to avoid a Prius in a store parking lot - I'm used to audio cues of my environment, and they just weren't paying attention while backing out.
Sound-makers on Prius and others is already being done in Japan [edmunds.com]
Re:Parking lots (Score:5, Insightful)
More than once I've had to side step quickly to avoid a Prius in a store parking lot - I'm used to audio cues of my environment, and they just weren't paying attention while backing out.
I call bullshit on this.
In a busy parking lot, someone backing up quickly is going to be mostly inaudible regardless of the vehicle involved - and either way, your ability to respond is roughly the same. (And with a Prius, at least you'd probably survive the impact.)
I hardly see how it being a Prius makes any difference. I've seen people back up into others walking behind their vehicle - hop in, quickly turn the ignition and then quickly throw into reverse. There's no consideration for others; people go myopic.
It's not going to do shit if you're in the vehicle, driving. You can sometimes not hear the large truck next to you due to road noise, never mind a Prius.
The fact is, Prius drivers (apparently) have little to no respect for the others who share their environment. (This goes for SUV drivers, too, btw.) "Oh, we'll just zip out quickly because we can, and I looked in my rear view mirror about 10 seconds ago when i got in the vehicle" is demonstrative of their mentality.
I've said it once and I'll say it again, because it still (mostly) applies: there's a reason we've only got one 'reverse' gear. GO SLOW. The same applies to the asinine regulations requiring reverse cameras in newly made vehicles (to the tune of another $200 to the purchaser).
I wonder how much it'd cost to buy a vehicle if we could get one with "just the road safety features invented in the past 50 years, please". I would not be surprised if stripping all the extraneous stuff out (dangerous-to-children air bags, ass heaters, electric windows, thermostats, etc.) resulted in a $25k vehicle costing less than $20k, and a $45k one less than 35k (assuming it's not $45k simply due to said luxury items).
Imagine what that would save the environment. (Here's an idea: "Imagine" what a city without automotive sounds would be like.)
Star Trek:TNG theme for me... (Score:2)
...cuz that's hoe I roll.
Hell, NO! (Score:5, Insightful)
So here we are on the verge of winning the war against noise pollution, and those motherfuckers WANT cars to be noisy?
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No kidding. I'm sure the law will end up requiring beepers that can be heard 2000 feet away, just like the ones that supposedly keep people from being accidentally backed over by garbage trucks.
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So here we are on the verge of winning the war against noise pollution, and those motherfuckers WANT cars to be noisy?
Unless electric cars don't have horns, or don't have car alarms, we're nowhere close.
Speaking of, I would be in favor of legislation banning car alarms. A few cities have tossed around that idea before, but got shot down by the car alarm industry, if it were to gain traction at a national level, I'm guessing certain radio personalities and certain cable news networks would cast it as "Government bails out car thieves."
I'd also favor regulating horns. I think fining people $5 every time they honk within ci
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So, you'd fine me for hitting my horn when someone is about to hit me/pull out in front of me/move into my lane and hit me/etc....? Do you know what the horn is there for?
I said it would be justified, yes. If there were a magical way to collect $5 every time someone honked without, say, requiring everyone to put a box in their car that reported the number of honks, or something like that, I would be for that. I can't think of a good way to do that without invading everyone's privacy with an inefficient system that would just be a waste of money.
If you're honking to avoid a collision, $5 isn't going to be a concern. If you're honking because you're angry or because you're
Re:Hell, NO! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hell, NO! (Score:4, Informative)
"The purpose of the study is to compare the crash experience of two different types of vehicles; it is not to make national estimates of problem size. The small sample size used in this study remains as a limitation towards conducting further analysis. Incidence rates provided in this report should be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size. Future analysis using larger sample size would provide better estimate of the problem size."
"This analysis was conducted on a total of 8,387 HEVs and 559,703 ICE vehicles that met the selection criteria. A total of 77 and 3,578 pedestrians were involved in crashes with HEVs and ICE vehicles, respectively. A total of 48 and 1,862 bicyclists were involved in crashes with HEVs and ICE vehicles, respectively."
Okay, so some important questions that need to be answered, and are not (I mentioned some of these in my first post):
1. How many people were hurt?
2. Were people being distracted by something at the time of the accident?
3. Are there any other external factors that were controlled for? (the list of controls are extremely poor, including things like location, and time of day, but not weather, ACTUAL lighting conditions, busy-ness of the location, time of week, etc.)
Point is, the study authors recognize their study is crap - they suggest a good study be conducted based on their evidence - that's IT. There isn't anything here to base a stupid new policy on. This is why politicians are rightly made fun of. This is why reasonable people sneer at shit like this, and get pissed when it actually passes. "Think of the pedestrian" you say - well, I say "Think. Period."
Idiocracy (Score:5, Insightful)
Brilliant. Legislate away the possibilities for innovation before the new market has a chance to solve the problem. Is it only in America that "leaders" push science and math and the entrepreneurial spirit, and then quickly make it illegal to innovate lest anyone gets hurt? sheesh
What this country needs is a good five cent nickel.
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Something needs to be put in place in the meantime; either voluntarily or compulsory.
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What innovation?
I think it's kind of silly (Score:4, Insightful)
a] drivers watching for pedestrians, like they're supposed to be doing [but who actually follows the laws these days?].
b] pedestrians checking for traffic before they walk into areas that might be occupied by cars; as it would actually be smart [this may be too much to ask].
c] lawmakers passing laws that actually benefit a majority of people, not just a small minority.
If this does go into effect, though, my car is totally going to have the TIE Fighter sound.
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This whole thing could be solved by:
a] drivers watching for pedestrians, like they're supposed to be doing [but who actually follows the laws these days?].
b] pedestrians checking for traffic before they walk into areas that might be occupied by cars; as it would actually be smart [this may be too much to ask].
c] lawmakers passing laws that actually benefit a majority of people, not just a small minority.
It's a tricky one. Should we be making cars noisy just for the one or two blind people who might walk the streets? I can't really think of another way of doing it. You can say that drivers should watch for pedestrians but someone can walk out from behind a large vehicle in a car park giving you very little time to react so they really do need a few hints to know that something is coming.
I know that blind people do make a very small minority, but this is the society we live in. If you don't like it go elsewh
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..so? (Score:2, Informative)
Do people really have problems with this
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Those things don't add to noise pollution, and they address *real* problems. Walking through a parking lot these days you'll notice that very few cars make any engine noise audible from more than a few feet away. I hear tire noise long before I hear engine noise. The fact that electric cars have no engine noise isn't really a significant change.
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Re:..so? (Score:4, Interesting)
Do people really have problems with this kind of thing?
Yes. I don't feel any "safer" when I'm awakened by a dump truck backing up a quarter of a mile away. Do you?
Consider the rapid growth of hybrid/electric cars' market share. If the same epsilon-minus bureaucrats responsible for backup beeper regulations have anything to do with this law, it will almost be worth moving out of the city to avoid the racket.
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but dude. our stealth cars.. we could totally drive around without anyone noticing us.. and the fucking government wants to put a card in our spokes like we're in 8th grade or something.. uhhh no thanks obama your not my president
Sound ideas? (Score:2)
Sample rate (Score:2)
Customizable sounds for a car sound good, but (Score:2)
Jim Carrey figured it out (Score:2)
I vote ThE MoSt AnNoYiNg SoUnD In ThE wOrLd [youtube.com]!
And who would've thought? (Score:2)
Electronic transponder system (Score:5, Interesting)
It seems unnecessary to make things nosier for everyone when the number of people that need the noise is very small. Why not just have an electronic transponder system so that people can know where cars are relative to them. It would even work on vibration for those that are blind and deaf. It could give out more information, like speed and direction, and it it could work from further away if necessary.
The best sound (Score:4, Funny)
Two halves of a coconut being clopped together.
Noise? That will solve everything.... (Score:3, Interesting)
As all motorcyclists know... (Score:3, Funny)
Loud pipes save lives.
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Ignoring the visually impaired pedestrians (which another poster has already pointed out), a distracted pedestrian/bicyclist is not necessarily a stupid one, and probably doesn't deserve to be culled from the herd by silent electric cars.
More than once I've been startled by a silent Prius pulling out from a parking space in front of me. A little noise might make walking through parking lots a bit safer.
Re:MUST PROTECT THE STUPID! (Score:5, Insightful)
Pedestrian crossing points with audible signals telling you when it's safe to go. Why, they don't have that in your country yet?
Frankly, is it safe NOW for a blind person to "listen for traffic" and then cross a street? Be honest.
Re:MUST PROTECT THE STUPID! (Score:4, Funny)
Care to tell me what a blind person is doing alone in a parking lot? Looking for his car?
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Because where I live honking is strictly forbidden except in absolute emergency situations to reduce noise pollution. Duh.
Re:Really dumb idea (Score:5, Informative)
Have you worked in a construction site? The sound of a truck 25 feet away backing up in your direction is much more noticable than a truck 100 feet away. The warning sound is especially useful in a busy construction zone where you have trucks in front, behind and to the side of you and you're concentrating on your task at hand, so you're not always facing the truck that is backing up toward you. The backup alarm is typically a directional horn - it is much more noticeable directly behind the truck than to the side.
Likewise, if you hear a cacophony of electric car noises, that probably means that there are a lot of electric cars in that direction so you should pay attention.
High tech solutions like a transponder and receiver have many failure points. A speaker is easy to hear, easy to verify that it's working, and the recipient (which could be a child, a bicyclist, or just a distracted pedestrian) doesn't need to buy and care for a transponder receiver.