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I saw on a page that a blind person and guild dog , almost had an incident because they said they couldn’t hear them . I also thought they were basically silence , but someone has mentioned thry all have to have a noise emitter . Which is correct
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Those I'm aware of seem silent. But then again a lot of petrol cars are pretty quiet too.
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Do hybrids need to emit a sound when they're running on electric?
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The engine and exhaust is only one contributor, and often only a minor one, to total vehicle noise.
Tyres and road surface are at least as important, although speed would have an impact on the dominant cause of noise.
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Further searching turned this up:
www.gov.uk/government/news/new-noise-systems-to-stop-silent-electric-cars-and-improve-safety
They should emit noise at less than 12mph/20kph or when reversing.
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I remember the law in the link above introducing a noise emitter from mid-2019 but I can say I have never experienced this and they all still seem silent, even new 20 plate cars - what happened? Was it just for new type approvals rather than existing models?
Have you seen those reversing light bulbs with a build in sounder?
I heard one of those in the sainsburys car park recently and was impressed, as I walked along a row of parked cars there was a continuous discreet but attention-attracting noise from the rear light of one. I would get one for mine if it were not for my rear lights not having conventional incandescent bulbs. I would endorse all cars having these from new.
Last edited by: Shiny on Tue 3 Nov 20 at 10:58
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My daughter thinks her e-208 emits a whining noise in reverse and at low speed but she's not sure as she's always been inside it...
There's also a joke in here somewhere about SWMBO and a constant whine - can it not just crack the window open at low speed?
Coincidentally a former work colleague shared the following on Facebook this morning:
Today my husband and I with our two guide dogs had another near miss with an electric car. We were crossing a side road and it came in off the main road and passed very close in front of us. If it’d been a petrol or diesel engine, or if it’d had a sound emitter fitted, we’d have heard it, but, apart from the sound of the tyres on the road, it was virtually silent.
I am a confident guide dog handler but I can honestly say that silent electric vehicles scare me. I fear that it will take serious injury to a blind person, or even worse, death, before any meaningful legislation is put into place. If it happens to me or someone that I care about, I’ll be in court and I won’t rest until we have justice.
So please, if you drive an electric vehicle, switch on your sound emitter. After all, you wouldn’t drive at night without your lights on, it’s the same thing.
Many people will like this post but please don’t. I ask anyone who would have hit the like button to please hit the share button instead and pass this far and wide. I fear for our lives and those of these two amazing dogs
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Some - not all - EVs before whatever the date was had sound emitters that could be changed or turned off. My Zoe was one - three choices of sound, or silent. A Leaf of the same age had no such option; you couldn't turn off the noise.
Since the change in the law, new EVs have to have a low speed sound emitter that cannot be be silenced.
It's a problem that time will deal with.
Certainly I tried running the Zoe in carparks and the like without the sound, and yes, people don't hear you come up behind them. So I did the right thing, and carried on doing that.
At anything over about ten, they make pretty much the same noise as an ICE car.
I don't think that they are silent, exactly, at any speed, but your ears are not attuned to hearing just tyre noise and thinking "that's a car". So that causes the problem.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Tue 3 Nov 20 at 12:07
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>> A Leaf of the same age had no such option; you couldn't turn off the noise.
Much the same with the new e vehicle expected from Mazda early next year.
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We have an Austrian-registered 2019 Honda CR-V Hybrid which plays music when travelling under a certain speed and running as an EV. The sound can't be changed, nor can it be switched off. We always take particular care when there are pedestrians around, and have been known to wind the window down and advise them of our presence ;-)
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>>..... and have been known to wind the window down and advise them of our presence ;-)
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Raus!. Raus!
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>>..... and have been known to wind the window down and advise them of our presence ;-)
In his little tank?
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>>and passed very close in front of us.
How does she know?
Nonetheless there is a point, and I guess road crossing is it. I don't think emitting a constant noise is an answer, legislated or not.
I wonder if electric vehicles could emit a radio signal which would react with a receiver causing that receiver to emit a sound? Such a receiver could be carried in small form by blind people, but also larger examples could be installed at crossings, outside schools etc. etc.
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>> How does she know?
I expect that was rhetorical but I guess we need to remember that a lot of people who are notionally blind have some limited vision.
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That is why I posted , I also saw exactly the same thing , I’ve seen afew EVs and always though, well a kid running along , could run out , because they haven’t heard the car. So a car doing 25 over a zebra crossing , a guide dog might not hear it and the blind person obviously wouldn’t be able to see it
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Am I missing something here? Surely the dog is the blind person's eyes?
Why can the dog not see the car coming and warn of any danger?
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One of the cycle paths I use on my scooter runs through a park where people walk dogs.
The dogs always hear me coming, even though it is pretty silent other than tyre noise, but are frequently startled because they don't know what it is. Though obviously that could be trained.
However, my understanding is that dealing with the world is a partnership between blind person and guide dog and both need to be aware of a situation or possibility so that together they can deal with it.
I guess that an unexpected silent car doesn't fall into that category. Personally I like my idea of a car emitting a signal and receivers on concerned person sounding an alert. It could be mandated for all silent vehicles, including cyclists and scooters.
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>>Personally I like my idea of a car emitting a signal and receivers on concerned person sounding an alert. It could be mandated for all silent vehicles, including cyclists and scooters.
The Woodbine packet fixed close to the rear wheel of my bike worked well when I were a nipper.
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Playing card and a peg, me.
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Zermatt has a strict ICE restriction policy. There the EVs emit the sound of Alpine cow bells, in harmony with the local environment.
No doubt we could have a suitable variant in UK. A continuous whine perhaps?
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>> That is why I posted , I also saw exactly the same thing , I’ve
>> seen afew EVs and always though, well a kid running along , could run out
>> , because they haven’t heard the car. So a car doing 25 over a zebra
>> crossing , a guide dog might not hear it and the blind person obviously wouldn’t
>> be able to see it
The sceptic in me thinks did that really happen?
It reads like one of those things put together by people who don't like the idea of electric cars at all. A well trained guide dog would hear them.
I'd also ask whether it's actually a guide dog's role to do 'kerb drill' and be aware of cars turning into a side road. Would it do that or just to lead its handler to a safe place to cross?
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Not holding back EV adoption.
www.speakev.com/attachments/car-regs-ytd-by-fuel-oct-2020-png.136843/
October 2019 - 2.2% EV, 2.2% Plug-in hybrid
October 2020 - 6.6% EV, 5.5% Plug-in hybrid
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>> Not holding back EV adoption.
>>
>> www.speakev.com/attachments/car-regs-ytd-by-fuel-oct-2020-png.136843/
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>> October 2019 - 2.2% EV, 2.2% Plug-in hybrid
>> October 2020 - 6.6% EV, 5.5% Plug-in hybrid
>>
>>
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The increase in in the number of Teslas and Zoes round here is marked; the i3 doesn’t seem to be as popular, despite the local Rolls Royce factory being a prime source for nee BMWs on the road down here.
Quite a few Audi e-tron things as well, though they look so similar to Q5/7s I’m never quite sure...must be getting old...there was a time I could tell the model from 50 metres away. Now I even struggle to tell the difference between a Mercedes C and E class coupe / convertible on the road, and I’ve got one!
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In my limited experience of driving our A3 plug-in hybrid in car parks, the people who were surprised by us driving by would have been equally surprised by anything...always those paying absolutely no attention to their surroundings! I can see for the blind there are potential challenges, but EVs are not completely silent...tyre noise is generally audible. A broadcast noise would, I think become very annoying and actually be worse than listening to an engine. A noise broadcast to those with a receiver is an interesting solution I guess.
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Before too long I expect most new cars will stuff to stop them driving into things (like people) in the same way Teslas and others already do.
My car has a "blip" horn which gives out a shorter and quieter parp with which you can warn of your approach without causing too much offence and disturbance. Only ever seen cyclists get offended, when I've blipped it just to let them know I'd be passing them (when they were travelling two or more abreast on a country road)
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I deal with a few ('20s) vehicles that have an 'exhaust sounder'. A horn that's activated by the exhaust gas (parp-parp-parp). Very effective!
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Electric vehicles - Bromptonaut
