Petrol-electric hybrid vehicles are coming under attack from a constituency that doesn’t drive: the blind, according to a US news agency report.
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Here in the UK, a leading hybrid maker said it was unaware if the issue had been raised but a group supporting the blind and partially sighted said the subject was about to come under scrutiny.
Because hybrids make virtually no noise at slower speeds when they run solely on electric power, US blind people say they pose a hazard to those who rely on their ears to determine whether it’s safe to cross the street or walk through a car park, the Associated Press (AP) said.
“I’m used to being able to get sound cues from my environment and negotiate accordingly. I hadn’t imagined there was anything I really wouldn’t be able to hear,” Deborah Kent Stein, chairwoman of the National Federation of the Blind’s Committee on Automotive and Pedestrian Safety, told the news agency. “We did a test, and I discovered, to my great dismay, that I couldn’t hear it.”
AP said the tests – admittedly unscientific – involved people standing in car parks or on footpaths who were asked to signal when they heard several different hybrid models drive by.
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By GlobalData“People were making comments like, ‘When are they going to start the test?’ And it would turn out that the vehicle had already done two or three laps around the parking lot,” Stein told the Associated Press.
Officials with the Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind were quick to tell AP that they were not advocating a return to gas guzzlers but they’d just like the fuel-efficient hybrids to make some noise.
According to the Associated Press, the NFB – the leading advocacy group for 1.3m legally blind people in the United States – has made pleas to the motor industry and to federal and state agencies, with little concrete success so far. On Wednesday, the president of the NFB’s Maryland chapter planned to present written testimony asking for a minimum sound standard for hybrids to be included in the state’s emissions regulations, the report added, noting that those regulations are crafted by the Maryland Department of the Environment, which has no oversight of auto safety.
Manufacturers are aware of the problem but have made no pledges yet. Toyota is studying the issue internally, Toyota Motor Sales USA spokesman Bill Kwong told the Associated Press.
“One of the many benefits of the Prius, besides excellent fuel economy and low emissions, is quiet performance. Not only does it not pollute the air, it doesn’t create noise pollution,” Kwong reportedly said. “We are studying the issue and trying to find that delicate balance.”
The report added that the Association of International Auto Manufacturers, a trade group, is also studying the problem, along with a committee established by the Society of Automotive Engineers. The groups are considering “the possibility of setting a minimum noise level standard for hybrid vehicles,” Mike Camissa, the safety director for the manufacturers’ association, told the Associated Press.
Officials with two separate arms of the US Department of Transportation – the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Highway Administration – told the news agency they are aware of the problem but have not studied it.
While Stein said she would prefer that hybrids sound similar to conventional engines, other blind people told AP they’d be fine with any sound that was inoffensive but easy to detect. Both sides reportedly agreed that it wouldn’t be prohibitively expensive to outfit cars with an adequate noise-making device.
“It’s cheaper than an air bag or other safety devices,” Kwong told the Associated Press. “Any kind of audio device is going to be relatively inexpensive.”
The news agency noted that some think that making hybrids louder won’t solve anything.
“To further expose millions of people to excessive noise pollution by making vehicles artificially loud is neither logical nor practical nor in the public interest,” Richard Tur, founder of NoiseOFF, a group that raises awareness of noise pollution, told the Associated Press.
Others reportedly believe that distracted pedestrians are at greater risk than blind people from quiet cars.
Commercial vehicles here in the UK often have loud buzzers, beepers or synthesised voice systems to warn that they are reversing.
A Toyota GB spokesman said the automaker had not heard of any calls to make hybrids noisier and noted that, with annual sales of about 7,000 Prius models expected this year, hybrids still only account for a fraction of vehicles on the road.
A spokeswoman for the UK’s Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) said Guide Dogs for the Blind had considered some of the material from USA groups on the issue, which was discussed at a recent meeting of the Joint Committee on Mobility of Blind and Partially Sighted People (for which Guide Dogs provides the secretariat), and they had arranged for a quiet car to be demonstrated.
“They have now set up a working group to consider the issues for blind and partially sighted people which includes the Department of Transport and Dr Lamperth of Imperial College who leads on quiet car research. The first meeting of the working group is on 11 October when they will consider the issues and possible research to look into how this could be addressed,” she told just-auto by email.
This issue is not entirely new, however. Concerns were expressed decades ago when virtually silent electric trolley buses replaced trams in some cities that pedestrians used to the noise of tram wheels on rails would not hear the much quieter buses approaching.
