Japan looking to make hybrid vehicles noisy
December 31st, 1969
Although the relative silence of hybrid vehicles has made them the choice of TV gangsters for drive-by shootings, the rest of the world is less than enamored with the difficulty involved in hearing one coming - especially when trying to cross the street. This phenomenon has inspired companies like Lotus to engineer a system that re-creates the sound of a normal car, and now the issue of whether such devices should become mandatory for hybrid vehicles is being discussed in Japan.
The problem lies in the design of the electric motors found in hybrid vehicles as they run almost silently when the car is driving on electric power alone. This has ruffled a few feathers with the vision-impaired, especially now that hybrid vehicles are the top sellers in Japan.
"We have received opinions from automobile users and vision-impaired people that they feel hybrid vehicles are dangerous," a transport ministry official explained to the Associated Press. "Blind people depend on sounds when they walk, but there are no engine sounds from hybrid vehicles when running at low speed" and on the electric motor, he said.
The Japanese government has now established a panel consisting of scholars, vision-impaired groups, consumers, police and the automobile industry to discuss the matter. One of the possible solutions the panel has come up with is to introduce a sound-making function in the hybrid vehicles.
Lotus has already developed such a feature called Safe & Sound, which uses a combination of speakers, microphones and advanced processing to deliver a quiet cabin ride while also ensuring the people outside the car can hear it coming by simulating a brawnier combustion engine's sound. The technology is already available to automakers but so far no hybrid vehicles have featured it.
Although the relative silence of hybrid vehicles has made them the choice of TV gangsters for drive-by shootings, the rest of the world is less than enamored with the difficulty involved in hearing one coming - especially when trying to cross the street. This phenomenon has inspired companies like Lotus to engineer a system that re-creates the sound of a normal car, and now the issue of whether such devices should become mandatory for hybrid vehicles is being discussed in Japan.
The problem lies in the design of the electric motors found in hybrid vehicles as they run almost silently when the car is driving on electric power alone. This has ruffled a few feathers with the vision-impaired, especially now that hybrid vehicles are the top sellers in Japan.
"We have received opinions from automobile users and vision-impaired people that they feel hybrid vehicles are dangerous," a transport ministry official explained to the Associated Press. "Blind people depend on sounds when they walk, but there are no engine sounds from hybrid vehicles when running at low speed" and on the electric motor, he said.
The Japanese government has now established a panel consisting of scholars, vision-impaired groups, consumers, police and the automobile industry to discuss the matter. One of the possible solutions the panel has come up with is to introduce a sound-making function in the hybrid vehicles.
Lotus has already developed such a feature called Safe & Sound, which uses a combination of speakers, microphones and advanced processing to deliver a quiet cabin ride while also ensuring the people outside the car can hear it coming by simulating a brawnier combustion engine's sound. The technology is already available to automakers but so far no hybrid vehicles have featured it.
Japan looking to make hybrid vehicles noisy
July 3rd, 2009
Author
July 3rd, 2009
Author
July 3rd, 2009
- Articles Contributed: 294
- Comments Posted: 0
- Leaderboard Rank: N/A
- 1339 Views
- 6 Comments
Lotus has a system that can make a normally quiet hybrid or electric vehicle sound like a V8
Enlarge PhotoThe problem lies in the design of the electric motors found in hybrid vehicles as they run almost silently when the car is driving on electric power alone. This has ruffled a few feathers with the vision-impaired, especially now that hybrid vehicles are the top sellers in Japan.
"We have received opinions from automobile users and vision-impaired people that they feel hybrid vehicles are dangerous," a transport ministry official explained to the Associated Press. "Blind people depend on sounds when they walk, but there are no engine sounds from hybrid vehicles when running at low speed" and on the electric motor, he said.
The Japanese government has now established a panel consisting of scholars, vision-impaired groups, consumers, police and the automobile industry to discuss the matter. One of the possible solutions the panel has come up with is to introduce a sound-making function in the hybrid vehicles.
Lotus has already developed such a feature called Safe & Sound, which uses a combination of speakers, microphones and advanced processing to deliver a quiet cabin ride while also ensuring the people outside the car can hear it coming by simulating a brawnier combustion engine's sound. The technology is already available to automakers but so far no hybrid vehicles have featured it.
More from MotorAuthority
-
11/06/2009
Opel Boss Carl-Peter Forster Calls It Quits
Carl-Peter Forster, GM group vice president and president of Opel, will be ...
-
11/06/2009
GM Czar Lutz Heading Back To Europe--To Opel?
GM's sudden decision this week to reverse path and keep Opel rather than ...
-
11/06/2009
Toyota To Put 2010 4Runner Through The Baja 1000 Wringer
Toyota's involvement in motorsports has been a hot topic this week with ...
More from High Gear Media
-
MustangBlog.com | 11/07/2009
Hallett CarFX Project Mustang featured on Dec. '09 cover of 5.0 Mustang Wrecks
For all you die-hard Ford Mustang enthusiasts who still subscribe to the ...
-
MustangBlog.com | 11/07/2009
2010 Cobra Jet Mustang Unveiled at SEMA show
This past week at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Ford ...
-
TheCarConnection.com | 11/06/2009
Opel CEO Calls It Quits, Rolls-Royce Hybrid: Today’s Car News
It’s official. The boss of Opel, Carl-Peter Forster, will be leaving ...
%7Cutmcsr%3D(direct)%7Cutmcmd%3D(none)%3B%2B__utmv%3D39730341.%3B)
Comments (6 total)
Meet the top commenters on the LeaderboardNO!
Now we are finally at the cusp of eliminating road noise, and they want to bring it back? Think of the thousands of people who have to deal with road noise every day because they can't afford to live anywhere further from major streets. One of the best things about electric cars is thier silence.
I've almost been hit by a hybrid, but it's because I'm not used to the concept yet; Now, when I step into a parking lot I look around more (we have a lot of hybrids here in California) than I did before, knowing I cannot count on my ears to tell me if there's a vehicle approaching. We will all get used to this eventually. Yes there will be some accidents, but that's life with any new technology. Blind people who use crosswalks and don't just wander into any parking lot without assistance will be fine, unless the electric car runs a red light or the driver ignores their surroundings, in which case it's not the car's fault...
My vote is for silent power...
But one of the greatest pleasures of driving is the sound of the intake roar, the loping idle a hot cam makes, and the rumble and scream of a nice stainless exhaust system. Even walking or sitting by the road, you can get the joy of hearing a Shelby Cobra replica with straight pipes, or a hot Italian V8 like an F430 or Maserati GT. One problem I could see with these systems is I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before people hack them to blare their hip-hop mp3s at the rest of the world.
True. I would miss the occasional Aston Martin at full tilt, but it would be mitigated by not having to listen to the 20 more Honda Civics with fart can exhausts.
Noise is just noise, it's another form of pollution, and one persons noise is another's symphony.
I have a Mustang GT, and I think it has one of the best sounding exhausts from a stock machine, but I would give it up to not have to listen to another open-pipe Harley blast by so loud it makes the windows shake 3 blocks away. Imagine if every vehicle were that loud? Even the biggest fans of engine noise wouldn't stand that for long...
Another factor for me is called "public access" which in the off road motorcycling community is a hot subject, with bikers on one side and property owners/hikers on the other, claiming we are too loud, and initiating policies to ban us wherever possible. If every bike were a Zero (look up Zero electric motorcycles online) then there would be less (certainly not none, but less) opposition to our sport...
Though I think alot of opposition to trail riding and off-roading is also due to the deformation of habitat and damage riders who want to create their own paths make. Obviously, that's not the vast majority of riders, it's just a case of a few irrisponsible individuals ruining it for the rest.
Reminds me of the debate that was roused when car radios were first introduced. It was said that a car radio would be a menace to safety becasue of the distraction. Many groups were quite vocal about this. It was later found that when people became used to the radio, they were able to navigate safely.
If you navigate roadways that bicycles, push carts and animals use, you adapt to the possibility. I think it must be quite rare for a person to wait for silence to judge that it is safe to cross a roadway.
I assisted a blind man for a couple of weeks years ago. But that was in the city and the roads were never quiet except late at night. As I remember, he never tried to cross roads alone. I did read a study in University that found that young children living near noisy roadways had more difficulties with language acquisition.
Post a Comment
Sign In |