Lithium & The Future, page-79

Just for oc.16



ELECTRIC cars are about to save the world, but it is important that they don't kill too many people in the process.
Which is why researchers have been trying hard to come up with the right "noise" for the cars to make so that they don't catch pedestrians unawares.
In China, fast electric motorbikes have already been dubbed "silent death", while research has shown early electric and hybrid cars are much closer to pedestrians when they become aware of them because they are so quiet at low speeds.
As the wave of electric and hybrid vehicles gets much larger, regulators in the US, Europe and Japan are all deciding whether to allow manufacturers to project sounds from the cars in place of engine noise up to 30 kmh -- when tyre noise takes over.
The problem is to get a noise that is not really annoying, like the reversing beep of a truck, but loud enough to be detected and give the pedestrian an idea if the car is accelerating or slowing down.
So far a wide range of noises are being trialled, including conventional engine noises all the way through to bizarre sounds like Star Wars sound effects.
Scientists at Warwick University are testing a different sound each week and checking the response of pedestrians.