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Would have loved some more details. Many petrol cars are now hybrid and are just as quiet as EVs. Many EVs make sound when driving at slow speeds. Does that m

by audunw 2y ago

Would have loved some more details. Many petrol cars are now hybrid and are just as quiet as EVs. Many EVs make sound when driving at slow speeds. Does that mitigate the problem? It’s actually really irresponsible that this topic isn’t brought up at all in the article. If artificial sound has a big impact we should have legislation around it ASAP, no? Is the weight actually a big factor? There are heavy EVs and EVs that are about the same weight as their ICE counterparts. The data could give us a better conclusion on this. We just had a report in Norway about traffic fatalities in cars.. and there’s really no significant difference between 0-4 yo cars that are now mostly EVs, and 5-9 yo cars that was mostly petrol cars. New ICE and new EVs are fairly similar. It’s old ICE that stand out in the data: they are far more deadly to occupants in an accident. If you don’t account for that ICE looks like a massive death trap in the data. I suspect old ICE will also stand out in accidents with pedestrians: they are so extremely loud that they will skew the data heavily towards the conclusion that petrol cars are safer to pedestrians than EVs. What can we do to improve the situation? I don’t feel like making noise is the right solution. The reduced noise of EVs and modern petrol cars is hugely valuable. Noise is negative for health. And besides, noise doesn’t help people with hearing problems or ear phones.

greyface- 2y ago
> If artificial sound has a big impact we should have legislation around it ASAP, no? It's not legislation, but there are already administrative rules that govern this in the US. The NHTSA requires all new EVs and hybrids to make artificial engine noise, with specific decibel and pitch requirements, and prohibits NHTSA-regulated entities (manufacturers, repair shops, etc - but not individual vehicle owners) from facilitating the disabling of such noise. https://www.regulations.gov/document/NHTSA-2016-0125-0001 https://www.regulations.gov/document/NHTSA-2016-0125-0001
orra 2y ago
> If artificial sound has a big impact we should have legislation around it ASAP, no? The EU (and UK) have required this from late 2020, IIRC. However it only applies to new cars. I don't think there's a requirement to retrofit old EVs.
h0l0cube 2y ago
> Many EVs make sound when driving at slow speeds. Does that mitigate the problem? It’s actually really irresponsible that this topic isn’t brought up at all in the article. This is brought up in the article: > Since July 2019, all new hybrid and electric vehicles sold in Europe have been required to have an acoustic vehicle alerting system that emits sound when the car is travelling slowly, but there are hundreds of thousands of electric cars on the road without the devices. “If government made sure these systems were installed in all electric vehicles and retrofitted them to older electric cars, that would be a good start,” Edwards said, adding that the Green Cross Code also “probably needs updating”.

by audunw 2y ago

greyface- 2y ago

> If artificial sound has a big impact we should have legislation around it ASAP, no? It's not legislation, but there are already administrative rules that govern this in the US. The NHTSA requires all new EVs and hybrids to make artificial engine noise, with specific decibel and pitch requirements, and prohibits NHTSA-regulated entities (manufacturers, repair shops, etc - but not individual vehicle owners) from facilitating the disabling of such noise. https://www.regulations.gov/document/NHTSA-2016-0125-0001 https://www.regulations.gov/document/NHTSA-2016-0125-0001

orra 2y ago

> If artificial sound has a big impact we should have legislation around it ASAP, no? The EU (and UK) have required this from late 2020, IIRC. However it only applies to new cars. I don't think there's a requirement to retrofit old EVs.

h0l0cube 2y ago

> Many EVs make sound when driving at slow speeds. Does that mitigate the problem? It’s actually really irresponsible that this topic isn’t brought up at all in the article. This is brought up in the article: > Since July 2019, all new hybrid and electric vehicles sold in Europe have been required to have an acoustic vehicle alerting system that emits sound when the car is travelling slowly, but there are hundreds of thousands of electric cars on the road without the devices. “If government made sure these systems were installed in all electric vehicles and retrofitted them to older electric cars, that would be a good start,” Edwards said, adding that the Green Cross Code also “probably needs updating”.