A popular, homespun (and perhaps slightly
off-color) “advertisement” for the Toyota Prius, circulated on
YouTube, features a hostage — bound, gagged, and on his knees —
and a cartoonish terrorist barking provocations at the camera.
“
I challenge you to save this man,” the
captor hollers as his prisoner squirms behind him. “Your advanced
technologies are no match for our senses.”
As a Prius rolls silently into the background, scoops up the
hostage and then glides off camera, the terrorist adds, “I can even
hear a man think.”
Whatever else the video might represent, it is a cheeky nod to a
particular characteristic of the Prius, and of hybrid and electric
vehicles generally: They do not make a lot of noise.
For some — particularly those unnerved by the persistent din of
modern, motorized civilization — that is a welcome virtue. Several
studies, after all, suggest a strong link between ill health and
persistent noise. Earlier this year, the Karolinska Institute in
Sweden reported an “association” between long-term exposure to
road traffic noise and the risk of myocardial infarction, or heart
attack — though the authors of the study emphasized that more
research was needed.
At the same time, the relative quiet of electric vehicles has long
been considered a potential hazard — particularly to blind
pedestrians, but also to bicyclists, children and others who,
presumably, are better served by the rumbling declarations of the
internal combustion engine.
So it was not entirely surprising when an official with the
Japanese Transport Ministry confirmed earlier this month that the
department had assembled a panel to consider the idea of adding “a
sound-making function” to hybrid-electric vehicles.
“Blind people depend on sounds when they walk,” the official
told Agence France-Presse. “But there are no engine sounds from
hybrid vehicles when running at low speed.”
Japan is not alone in its concerns.
As the market for hybrid vehicles expands (analysts at R.L. Polk &
Co., an auto industry market research company, expect hybrid
penetration in Europe and North America to reach 5 percent of the
overall car market in the next three years), so too has a general
unease over the potential for injurious car-pedestrian encounters.
Legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress would require the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to study the issue,
and establish a minimum decibel level for all cars.
"I was in my hometown of Ocala at the grocery store with my
wife," said Congressman Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican and
a co-sponsor, along with Edolphus Towns, Democrat of New York, of one
of the bills. "As I was crossing the parking lot I noticed that
a car came very close to me and I did not hear it," he said."I
saw firsthand that this could be a potential safety issue."
The European Commission is reportedly examining the issue as well
— as are a number of companies and entrepreneurs who anticipate a
lucrative market in customized, perhaps even downloadable sounds that
manufacturers and drivers of hybrid and electric vehicles can use to
brand their cars.
Needless to say, some consumers wince at the whole idea.
"I will never buy a car with a 'noisemaker,'" wrote Albé
Bredekamp, an electrical engineer and Prius owner in South Africa, at
the Priuschat.com forums earlier this month. "I'll demand that
it be disabled or removed. If not, I'll do it myself."
Bill Reinke, a Green Inc. reader, wrote in our forum last week: “I
heard this same dubious complaint when I bought my Prius. Eight years
and 99K miles later,” or 160,000 kilometers, “I have yet to kill
or even maim any pedestrians, vision-impaired or otherwise.
“What evidence is there, that there is a safety issue with quiet
vehicles?”
Very little, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the department’s highway traffic safety
division, said his agency, with the prodding of the National
Federation of the Blind and other groups, has been analyzing
pedestrian fatality data for some time, to uncover any increased
hazard posed by “quiet cars.”
“We’ve not seen evidence that there is a safety issue,” Mr.
Tyson said — though he added that this does not mean it could not
one day become a problem.
The agency is conducting field tests that measure the comparative
audibility of hybrids and conventional cars.
Meanwhile, Lawrence Rosenblum, a researcher who
specializes in auditory perception at the University of California,
Riverside, said there was some cause for concern. In a variety of
laboratory and field tests of his own, Mr. Rosenblum has determined
that blindfolded subjects are able to make significantly faster —
and more accurate — decisions about the direction from which a
conventional car is approaching than about Prius models.
He also suggests it is not just an issue for
the blind.
“We use sound as an early warning system,” Mr. Rosenblum said.
“It grabs our attention as it needs to, and it’s an issue for
everybody, not just those who are visually impaired.”
But, he added, the problem is fairly narrow, in that the cars are
quietest at very low speeds. Above 15 miles per hour, he said,
friction noise from the wheels on the road, even in a vehicle running
in full electric mode, makes enough sound to make its presence known.
Adding some sort of artificial noise at speeds below 15 miles per
hour will certainly help, Mr. Rosenblum said, though it need not
rattle the nerves.
“The good news is, because of the way our brains work, as long
as it can detect a sound, it doesn’t need to be a loud sound,” he
said.
But what sound? Some manufacturers, including Fisker Automotive,
which plans to sell an electric sports car, provide engine tones via
internal and external speakers — not least to satisfy drivers who
relish the muscular vroom of a conventional engine.
Shai Agassi, the founder of Better Place, which aims to provide an
infrastructure for battery swaps and recharging electric vehicles,
told a German car magazine last August that he was also betting on
personalized sounds for electric cars, and that his company had
copyrighted the term “Drivetones.”
“Your car can sound like a Harley or a speedboat — no
problem,” Mr. Agassi was quoted as saying.
EVAcoustics, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based startup funded in part by
the National Federation for the Blind, is busy developing an external
sound system that would work with the internal computer on a Prius,
projecting sound in "meaningful ways" from speakers mounted
near the wheels.
And Musikvergnuegen, an audio branding company in Hollywood,
Calif. perhaps best known for creating Intel's sound logo, is
apparently sizing up the potential market for creating customized
sounds for automakers. Said Taka Yasuzawa, an associate producer with
the company: "The main impetus for this is Congress discussing
passing a bill that would set some standards for hybrid cars. The
ball is in their court."
Just how likely it is that such a bill would pass is difficult to
say, but it seems certain that global entrepreneurs will pursue a
cacophony of sounds, raising the specter of an unholy racket on roads
until — or unless — a standard is established that harmonizes the
conflicting sides of the quiet car debate.
In an e-mail message last week, Chris Danielsen, the spokesman for
the National Federation of the Blind, expressed optimism.
“We believe that a solution can be found,” he said, “that
balances the needs of pedestrians — including not only the blind
but also runners, small children, etc., with the desire for less
noise.”
(from the New York Times)