AutoblogGreen

this is one of the stupidest topics I've seen.
How many blind people do you think are out there walking around alone and without a dog? You think a dog is going to have trouble hearing an electric car? Do you think a blind person whose other sense become more attuned is going to miss it?
so we're going to re-engineer an entire system for what purpose?
I have never seen a blind person walk to a corner and not have an offer of assistance from someone.
Stop trying to be ridiculously PC and get on with getting us back into the technology race.

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I live in Paris part-time, and we sighted people constantly rely on car sounds to avoid being hit. There are many cars from many directions, and pedestrians overflow off narrow sidewalks on some smaller streets.

I think Paris and other large cities would have potentially serious problems if silent cars were on the road, although the cars would work well in dense populations. It's a dilemma.

In addition, older people everywhere with diminished senses could be at risk of devastating injuries.

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It took a very short time for me to realize that my new Prius couldn't be heard by ANYbody, blind or sighted in electric mode. I got rearended twice by SUVs! Now I'm very alert.
What about people who blare their radios/CDs and can't hear emergency vehicle sirens?????

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I drive a 2003 Prius and am aware of how silent it can be in certain situations, most of which involve pedestrians. I also drive near the Kentucky School For the Blind on a weekly basis. I am extra careful around *all* pedestrians - sighted and blind. I can tell when people can't hear me (which I find a little amusing) and I keep my distance so as not to startle them. I drive a car that requires a little extra dilligence around pedestrians and so I take the extra care required. I think that often we go out of our way to come up with a way to be lazier and less responsible. Rather than each of us taking care of each other and ourselves, we want society to let us off the hook by putting noise makers on cars and rumble strips on the sides of roads which enables us to stop paying attention when we most need to.

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The National Federation of the Blind has over 50,000 members in the United States. While this may be a small percentage of the population, it does not reflect all the blind people in the country. Many elderly blind do not use canes, and most blind people do not have guide dogs, contrary to one man's opinion.
You as a driver may not see many blind people, but the person who is blind is blind all the time, and has to deal with the lack of auditory information in silent cars. Obnoxious noises are not the answer, and a beeper would be of limited use. But some sort of noise would be helpful, even if it's a musical tune of six notes or so that plays when the car approaches a pedestrian in the crosswalk. It wouldn't need to be loud enough for the driver to hear unless his windows were open. Just a suggestion.
Loraine Stayer, member, National Federation of the Blind

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I have been driving a Prius for a little over a year and so far I have not hit a single blind person, child, adult, bird, dog, cat, possum or even armadillo. The only complaint I've had about the lack of noise was when a coworker told me he didn't know I'd arrived to pick him up.

I do not think noise makers should be added to vehicles. There are other more efficient methods for blind people to distinguish oncoming vehicles.

As for the lady in the parking lot startled by the Prius, I will tell you what I told my son many years ago--"Look both ways!" Whether we drive silent cars or walk along roadways and in parking lots, we all need to pay a little more attention to our surroundings.

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Good points made. I think I agree that modifying the car is the only solution. We can't mark up every stretch of road, parking lot, etc. And I agree that
We've got to keep not only blind people safe, but kids, animals, everyone. So if the car has to make a bit of a "vroom" sound, however it's manufactured, then do it. Green Drivers will just have to suck it up.

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What are we thinking here people? Blind people are blind!!, that is why they are called blind people.
We cannot ask blind people to be any more responsible for their own welfare than they already are.
If you drive an electric car and live or visit in an area that has a population of blind people then it is your respondsibilty to not run over them.
If you drive the loudest Harley Davidson in your town and live or visit in an area that has ANY people it is your responsibilty to not run over them.
I live in a neighborhood that has a lot of children playing at certain times of the day. When I drive during those times and ANY other times I just don't run over the children. I don't care if the children are blind or not. I know it is the parent's responsibility to keep them out of the streets but I still think I would feel really bad if I ran over a child.
I hope everyone understand I am making fun of this ridiculous idea.
If you drive a motorized vehicle then you are responsible for operating it in a safe manner. It is really that simple.

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Which is a bigger threat? Global warming or blind people having trouble hearing cars? Should we require cow catcher type devices to scoop quadraplegics out of the way too?

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Has anyone else figured out the fact that there were no comments from actual blind people used in this story? The very idea that electric cars are going to present some incredible life threatening hazard to blind people is just plain ridiculous! Are we or have we ever raised the same question about bicycles?! No. What we are looking at here is clearly an attempt to discredit a cleaner, better system of transportation by waving the flag of fear again. the question now is, what does the writer or his friends and family stand to gain by the continuation of our present gas guzzling society. When people start making changes that make sense, it's usually the upper class who objects or stands in the way.

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My previous post was from the perspective of what would work best for a blind person. I suggested that the best solution involved using near-field wireless transponder in automobile to digitally signal approach of vehicle to a blind person equipped with a wireless alert receiver (or possibly piggy-backed into/onto some other mobile device such as a cellphone, iPod-like, PDA, or whatever ).

This solution for the blind would, however, at some point in time, most likely be perverted for evil use, given the sick nature of the times we live in. Can you imagine a better way to set off an IED than to use the alert signal of an approaching vehicle ? :(

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The answer -- for those who are blind, at least -- clearly is some form of wireless transponder signal that a receiver can pick up and transmit to the wearer, via vibration if not audio (as having to wear an ear piece could interfere with other audio.

Transportation technology is moving towards wireless radar in cars to avoid accidents. Medical technology is evolving towards more sophisticated interfaces with the human nervous system from sensory prosthetic devices (hearing and sight). And computer/cellphone/PDA technology has already delivered the short-range wireless data link in the form of either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. A dedicated frequency, channel, or protocol could be used to separate critical information interactions (like vehicle alerts) from more commonplace transmissions in order not to complicate the cost of either the transmitter or receiver to have to process general traffic and filter out the alerts.

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FIRST GIVE ME THE % OF BLIND PEOPLE IN THE COUNTRY THEN GIVE ME THE % OF THE DRIVERS WHO IS NOT BLIND.IT TOOK THE BLACKS TO MAKE UP WHAT? 37% BEFORE THEY COULD EVEN DRINK OUT OF THE SAME WATER FOUNTAIN AS A WHITE MAN,THE INDAIN MADE UP 50% AT ONE TIME BUT WERE SLAUGHTERED TO MINIORITY STATUS SO THIS WOULD LEAD ME TO THINK THAT THE PERSON WHO BROUGHT THIS SUBJECT TO LIGHT IS ONLY USEING THIS AS A TEST JUST TO SEE HOW MUCH INTREST IS GIVEN TO THIS SUBJECT BY THE MASSES.THEN I GET TO THINKING HOW MUCH MONEY IS STILL TO BE MADE OFF FOSSIL FUELS(trillions).SO AT THIS TIME ANYONE WHO TRIES TO PULL AWAY FROM BUYING THIS FUEL AND MOVING TO THE NEXT GENERATION OF FUEL BEFORE ALL THE MONEY THAT COULD HAVE BEEN MADE OFF OF FOSSIL FUELS,ARE ACTUALY MADE WELL THIS COULD BRING THREAT TO CERTIN PEOPLES WAY OF LIFE AND CONTROL.BUT THEN I THINK OF THE PEOPLE JUST FLAT OUT.WE ARE A MELTING POT THE BIGGEST IN THE WORLD THE MOST DIVERSE NATION.THIS IS WHAT WE ALL WANTED THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE ALL FOUGHT FOR.AND NOW FOR EVERY ONE PERSON WITH A GOOD THING THERE WILL BE THREE PEOPLE WITH SOMETHING BAD TO SAY ABOUT THE GOOD THING.GETTING BACK TO THE BLIND I'VE BEEN ONTHE ROAD 37 YEARS AND NEVER SEEN A BLIND PERSON.THERES SOME STATS TO STUDY.DONT GET ME WRONG I FULLY RESPECT THE BLIND AND ANYONE ELSE WITH A HANDICAP AND WILL GO OUT OF MY WAY TO HELP THEM.I REALLY DONT HAVE A SOLUTION AT THIS POINT SO I ONLY WONDER WHY WITH THE TECNOLOGY WE HAVE AND THE RESOURCES WE HAVE CREATED IN THE PRUSUIT OF KEEPING THE PEOPLE in THE CARS ON THE ROAD SAFE AND THE BILLIONS GENERATED FROM seat belt tickets WHY SHOULD THIS EVEN BE DEEMED A CONCERN.EXCEPT MABEY JUST A SIMPLE PLOY TO KEEP THE RICH,RICH AND THE POWERFUL,POWERFUL mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm JUST A THOUGHT.

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Yet another attempt by the petrolium industries to hinder anything that might reduce our dependance on oil.

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The electric cooling fan coming on when the vehicle is stopped is probably the least expensive, and wisest idea. Just tap into the vehicle speed sensor circuit. Then when the vehicle gets below 7 MPH have the computer kick on the electric fan. Remember that a recall is usually a whole lot cheeper than the consequences.

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I cannot beleive the level of ignorance in this country! People on both sides of this world conflict in Iraq, Afganistan and anywhere else blood spills for oil. including the maiming and deaths of thousands of children, not even mentioning pollution and all the health diseases and deaths associated with it, there exists a remedy to counter all the greed which fuels the atocities agaist every level of human decency and all the media can do is deal out this kind garbage advocating reasons to foolishly block another avenue of progress. Yet, be sure to recycle your plastics? Give me a break ... wake up people, grow some balls and start demanding a better way for us all to live. Your ignorance will be no excuse when your children need oxygen masks to play outdoors!

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Stein did a test. Is she blind? I understand a blind person may have heightened hearing. The test should be done with blind people.

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Cars should make noise. Small animals and pedestrians need to know - if they are in the road and being approached from behind. Roadwork is being done in my area and we are all walking in the middle of the street. Squirrels pay attention to noise - why should we kill them? Children might be saved also.

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please think of a HUMAN LIFE before fashionable autos and how much they will put in your pockets. A car can be replaced but a HUMAN can not....

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The number of blind people one encounters varies depending on the part of the country you're in. Here in the Washington DC Metro area, there are a lot of them (with and without Guide Dogs). However, there were very few in New Orleans. The Guide Dog works with the blind person: they're not a complete substitute for being aware of their surroundings. Blind (or sighted) people really can't rely on drivers to "be aware of the pedestrians" there are too many people with their brain wrapped up in their cell phone conversation.

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