Another dumb idea, pedestrian low speed noise makers.

[HankLloydRight]

Ah, let me clarify with a hypothetical scenario:
Inspection station mechanic: "You disabled your dohickey(or your dohickey does not work)"
Me: "So?"
Inspection station mechanic: "Can't pass you until I repair that at a cost of (10x what it should cost)"... There's the $$ argument.

First of all, anyone who "disables" a pedestrian noisemaker would probably do so with a switch to re-enable it. Or at a minimum, be smart enough to re-connect it before getting a car inspected once every year or two. Second, at least in CT, EVs are exempt from inspections because they have no emissions to inspect so I never have to get my car inspected. I know MA is much more strict on this though. Third, any 'repair' in your scenario would be a third party repair shop, not governmental revenue generation. Fourth, the owner would obviously have the option of repairing it themselves and returning for a re-inspection. No inspection center I know of in several northeast states would hold car hostage in order to force an owner to pay for a repair for a failed safety item on-the-spot.

Also, I'm sure eventually some enforcement agency somewhere will pull someone over for a failed dohickey - akin to a broken tail light etc..

It's not even that important. It's like the front license plate. It's illegal in every state I've lived in not to have a front plate. Yet, I've never put the front plate on my cars for three decades. Never got a ticket. Very very few people get tickets for no front plate, and even the ones that do are 'fix-it tickets' where you can go back and show that it's been fixed to dismiss the ticket. And the way that government and LEO agencies lag behind technology, it's going to be a very very long time until there's a LEO that knows the current law, knows which cars should and shouldn't make a sound, and under what specific conditions, and be bored enough to write a ticket for that. It's just not realistic. LEOs have much better things to do. If LEOs were interested in writing tickets and generating revenue, around here there are a dozen stop signs that EVERYONE almost ignores (I don't, of course). The cops could sit there and write tickets ALL DAY LONG, generating tons of revenue for the town, the state, and the insurance companies (moving violations and all) and make those drivers safer drivers in the long run. But they rarely do. You think these LEOs are going to concern themselves with a noisemaker not making a noise in a tiny subset of cars?

 

[HankLloydRight]

Now that EV's are singled out to have this dohickey installed, that poor pedestrian who was struck can't just say "I didn't hear the car", they can say "I didn't hear the car because it is electric and it's owner disabled it's dohickey, which is illegal" - making the driver appear malicious.

Again, just because a pedestrian didn't hear a car, doesn't automatically mean the car didn't make a noise. ("what if a tree falls in the woods?"). The pedestrian's very subjective testimony would not be admissible like that. And like I said above, 99% of the time the driver is already liable for hitting a pedestrian, so "malice" doesn't really come into play.

 

[DrDabbles]

As others have pointed out, in a city with multiple cars with sound generators all moving slowly at once, it will just be a jumble of noise and people will likely notice the first time they hear the noise, and then start tuning it out.

So exactly like regular cars, which is the entire point.

 

[wdolson]

First of all, anyone who "disables" a pedestrian noisemaker would probably do so with a switch to re-enable it. Or at a minimum, be smart enough to re-connect it before getting a car inspected once every year or two. Second, at least in CT, EVs are exempt from inspections because they have no emissions to inspect so I never have to get my car inspected. I know MA is much more strict on this though. Third, any 'repair' in your scenario would be a third party repair shop, not governmental revenue generation. Fourth, the owner would obviously have the option of repairing it themselves and returning for a re-inspection. No inspection center I know of in several northeast states would hold car hostage in order to force an owner to pay for a repair for a failed safety item on-the-spot.

Out here in the west car inspections aren't common. I think every state has some form of emissions testing. When I lived in California it was done by repair shops with a license from the state (that may have changed it was 30 years ago). Washington has state run stations but all they were ever concerned about are some basic safety items like the taillights working and emissions. And even that is being phased out. Hybirds, ICE over 25 years old, and ICE made after 2008 are exempt. EVs are, of course, also exempt. Emissions testing is only required in 5 counties now. There is a mostly pro-forma inspection of newly purchased used cars or cars brought in from other states, but it isn't much.

Cars don't rust out in the west, so there is less push to do anything more than emissions testing.

It's not even that important. It's like the front license plate. It's illegal in every state I've lived in not to have a front plate. Yet, I've never put the front plate on my cars for three decades. Never got a ticket. Very very few people get tickets for no front plate, and even the ones that do are 'fix-it tickets' where you can go back and show that it's been fixed to dismiss the ticket. And the way that government and LEO agencies lag behind technology, it's going to be a very very long time until there's a LEO that knows the current law, knows which cars should and shouldn't make a sound, and under what specific conditions, and be bored enough to write a ticket for that. It's just not realistic. LEOs have much better things to do. If LEOs were interested in writing tickets and generating revenue, around here there are a dozen stop signs that EVERYONE almost ignores (I don't, of course). The cops could sit there and write tickets ALL DAY LONG, generating tons of revenue for the town, the state, and the insurance companies (moving violations and all) and make those drivers safer drivers in the long run. But they rarely do. You think these LEOs are going to concern themselves with a noisemaker not making a noise in a tiny subset of cars?

Cops tend to be more interested in moving violations. Where cops nail people for safety equipment violations is usually if the person getting the ticket did something to tick off the cop.

When I lived in Los Angeles both the LAPD and CA Highway Patrol had motorcycle cops and both had jurisdiction on freeways. The LAPD cops had white helmets and the Highway Patrol had gold. One high school kid I heard about got pulled over by an LAPD motorcycle cop and was cheeky enough to ask how many tickets he had to write to get a gold helmet. The cop used 2 or 3 ticket forms listing all the violations with his car.

Both Washington and Oregon enforce the front license plate law. I know a lot of people in CA leave the license plate off the front of their Tesla, but I have yet to see one locally without a plate. The cops here are especially hyper about license plates. Before Washington lowered their car registration fees it was common for people to register their car at a friend's house in Oregon (where tabs were a lot cheaper) and live here. If you had an out of state plate and the cop saw your car a lot, cops were likely to give you more scrutiny and they used any excuse they could to pull you over.

Washington tabs went down to near parity with Oregon (a few dollars more, but negligible) about a decade back, but I still think the cops around here are hyper about front license plates. I don't tempt fate.

So exactly like regular cars, which is the entire point.

Yup.

 

[silentcorp]

This noise maker can't come soon enough, driving today I almost hit like 30 deaf folks, it was chaos as they dashed in front of the car left and right!!!

 

[spinbackwards]

Howdy,

Seems to me what this is really about is the Ancien Regime and Republicans wanting to hassle EV companies. Which of course completely contradicts Republican ethos of fewer regulations.

Peace and love,

 

[voip-ninja]

Howdy,

Seems to me what this is really about is the Ancien Regime and Republicans wanting to hassle EV companies. Which of course completely contradicts Republican ethos of fewer regulations.

Peace and love,

Maybe you could do 2 minutes of research so you sound like less of a partisan crank whining about the political opposition bogeymen.

The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2010 was approved by the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent on December 9, 2010 and passed by the House of Representatives by 379 to 30 on December 16, 2010.[2][28][29] The act does not stipulate a specific speed for the simulated noise but requires the U.S. Department of Transportation to study and establish a motor vehicle safety standard that would set requirements for an alert sound that allows blind and other pedestrians to reasonably detect a nearby electric or hybrid vehicle, and the ruling must be finalized within eighteen months.[2][5]The bill was signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 4, 2011.[30]

 

[SCW-Greg]

FYI...

 

[SpudLime]

I prefer installing a thingamabob

 

[Maximilien]

While I understand the gravity of the pedestrian safety, I would not like the unnecessary noise everytime pedestrian pass by.

There may be an alternative solution.

 

[Webeevdrivers]

While I understand the gravity of the pedestrian safety, I would not like the unnecessary noise everytime pedestrian pass by.

There may be an alternative solution.

Well, they are directional so if you can hear them inside they are extremely quiet. We barely notice ours on either car.

 

[ebmcs03]

Every EV I’ve owned already has this stupid noise maker. I was so happy that the model 3 didn’t have it.
The fiat 500e, VW e-Golf, Bolt, even the Prius Hybrid and Prius Prime has it. Don’t like it one bit.

 

[TW14 9LF]

Here's what I want on my car.

Keith

 

[HankLloydRight]

Here's what I want on my car.

Nice! I have to add that as an option for EV-horn. Thanks!

Which makes me think, perhaps I should also add Hypnotoad!

 

[Hank42]

While I understand the gravity of the pedestrian safety, I would not like the unnecessary noise everytime pedestrian pass by.

There may be an alternative solution.

Ok, Ok, fine, you all win, I'll bow to the pedestrian dohickey- but I'm keeping my spikes - peds be dammed!

 

[spinbackwards]

Maybe you could do 2 minutes of research so you sound like less of a partisan crank whining about the political opposition bogeymen.

You're a noise maker.

 

[APotatoGod]

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the noise makers, but I like the idea of sci-fi sounds much more than I thought I would, and likely wouldn't mind a sci-fi themed noise maker too much, as long as it doesn't sound like the filthy ICE car it's replacing . Although I would definitely appreciate some options, such as the cutoff speed, alternate sounds, and some effort put in to it transitioning smoothly to the natural road noise as the speed changes (and also likely having the volume correspond to the current speed). Overall, I'd probably prefer not needing it, but feel like Tesla will likely (hopefully) put the effort into a good implementation that is configurable and reasonably pleasant. I'm just glad it's not using the stereo system to generate it, as I'd assumed when reading about it in the past!

 

[DrDabbles]

I would not like the unnecessary noise everytime pedestrian pass by.

It's not whenever a pedestrian passes by. It's whenever the vehicle is moving <= 30 kph.

There may be an alternative solution.

Not legally, no. Your car must comply with the DOT regulations.

 

[derotam]

Ok, Ok, fine, you all win, I'll bow to the pedestrian dohickey- but I'm keeping my spikes - peds be dammed!

I was just thinking this before I got to your post... And actually, mandating spikes to be placed on the front of all vehicles I bet would make people a lot more cautious about crossing the street!

 

[jerry33]

Every EV I’ve owned already has this stupid noise maker. I was so happy that the model 3 didn’t have it.
The fiat 500e, VW e-Golf, Bolt, even the Prius Hybrid and Prius Prime has it. Don’t like it one bit.

It's there because it's mandated. Actually, I wouldn't mind it if it was on all cars less than a certain dB, because then there would be a real backlash and they would get rid of the silly legislation, but to single out cars with electric motors is just a ploy by the ICE lobbyists to slow the growth of EVs. Nothing to do with safety. If little Johnny runs out in the street and some BMW cuts him down, it's "Stupid kid, didn't look", but if it's an EV "He couldn't hear it coming, so it's the car's fault for not being noisy".

In the seventeen years I've been driving electrified vehicles, the lack of noise hasn't ever been an issue. And the couple of times in parking lots where I wasn't heard, the only way to get the pedestrians attention would be to have an air horn, as they are either talking to their friends or listening to music--in either case the beeps wouldn't register.