I dont doubt the the motivation behind the noise-maker is well-intentioned, but imho it's misguided. Part of my work involves the design of patient monitors used in hospital ICU/CCU. These devices are damn smart and can alert nursing staff to (literally) hundreds of potential patient issues. BUT that causes a problem, because in a typical ICU it is almost certain that at least one (audible) alarm is going off pretty much 24/7. The result? Alarm fatigue on the part of staff, who basically dont hear them any more; they just become background noise. In fact, the sure way to get a nurse to stop and look around in surprise is that rare occasion when all the alarms STOP.
And this is where we are going to end up with all these noise makers. As EVs get more and more common they are going to be going off all the time .. and people will become so habituated to them that they won't notice, won't look up from texting, and so the noise-maker will contribute essentially nothing to safety. All they will do is add more noise pollution .. terrific.
A few months ago some statistics were published indicating that pedestrian-related serious car accidents had gone up hugely (80%) in the last few years (these were actual US government numbers), and the finger was generally being pointed at SUVs (since the higher height tends to push people under the car rather then over the top apparently). But have we seen anything to fix that very real problem? Nope, instead we get a little man walking in front of an EV with a red flag (not literally, but that WAS the case way back when automobiles were new in the UK 100+ years ago .. and no I'm not making this up).
