Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Legislation and Policy, USA
Cali. Senate approves bill to make hybrids noisier
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California may just pass Maryland as the first State to require hybrid and electric cars to have a minimum sound level. While the East Coast state has created a task force to study the issue, the Senate in the far-left State has just now approved a bill which would establish its own committee for the same purpose. The bill will now be passed on to The Governator, Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, who has apparently not taken a stance as of yet on the politically-charged issue. Although Cali is just the third-largest State by land area, it is the most populous and has a huge collection of hybrids and electric vehicles due to its strict emissions requirements, and we all know how important California's auto legislation is for setting the stage across the country.
While many may argue over whether or not legislation is really required for cars being too quiet, the technology certainly exists to take care of it. Lotus, for example, has already demo'd its Safe and Sound system.
[Source: AP via San Jose Mercury News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ignatius 9:47AM (8/22/2008)
You have GOT to be kidding me.
This is one of the benefits I wanted from the Volt. Completely silent operation. DAMNIT!
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Mike 10:00AM (8/22/2008)
Focus is all wrong, emphasis should be on trying to quiet cars, not make them louder. Silence is a worthwhile goal.
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Sean 10:02AM (8/22/2008)
I completely agree. This ticks me off. I am looking forward to silent drive-through lines and much quieter city streets!
Never mind the waste of taxpayer money these committees will be.
On the bright side, you know just as soon as such a car is released, people will find a way to disable the noisemaker. If this law is passed, it will probably surpass prohibition as the most disregarded law!
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kballs 12:46PM (8/22/2008)
I think people would be even more likely to hack/customize the sounds like they do with ringtones (to express their unique and crappy taste), rather than disabling them. When you put a loudspeaker on the outside of cars and make them play digital sounds, the streets will be full of crazy sounds (elephant stampedes, machine guns, sirens, farts, burps, etc.) and music... and maybe even advertisements and political campaigning (yes they can already do this with bullhorns, etc. but it's not as compelling to the average person as a built-in loudspeaker with widely available software hacks).
Gary 10:27AM (8/22/2008)
Your cell phone has custom ring tones. Now your car has custome engine sounds.
Jetsons, Star Trek - warp drive, old west - horse hoofs and wagon wheels, etc.
You know the system is gonna get hacked and the sound replaced with other sounds.
In all seriousness, most of the time you hear the wind and wheel noise more than the engine noise. Unless the driver is flooring it, the engine noise is actually fairly quiet on modern cars. Now at low speeds you don't have much wheel or wind noise. If this ends up beoming law I could see it being off when stopped and then the sound comes on when you start to move and fades out the faster you go.
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EVan 11:00AM (8/22/2008)
What I hate about this is if California passes some dumb law like this we all end up getting noisy hybrids and EV's across North America.
Thanks hippies.
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slk23 11:35AM (8/22/2008)
Hippies? Obviously you've never been to California.
It's a stupid idea and I hope the law won't pass.
Finally, please, please stop calling it "Cali". As a California native, hearing or reading that is like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Yanquetino 11:16AM (8/22/2008)
I have said this before, when this issue has been raised previously. The whole idea is based on mere "impressions," rather than bona fide data.
In reality, I predict that a study would show that blind people hear EVs and PHEVs much better than those who can see. The same goes for their ability to hear bicyclists, skateboarders, and joggers.
Because blind people depend so exclusively on their ears to navigate their way around the world, their hearing is much more acute and sensitive. It is similar to the sensitivity of their touch. How many sighted people can accurately distinguish the dots in a brail letter? In short, when one sense is diminished, other senses tend to compensate. The blind probably need "noise-makers" less than sighted folks!
Indeed, it is insulting to the blind to assert the opposite: because there is something wrong with their sight, there must also be something wrong with their hearing, right? Duh.
I have written to Governor Schwarzenegger on this issue, and I hope the rest of you will do the same.
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Bill 11:47AM (8/22/2008)
ABG, why would title this report as "Senate approves bill to make hybrids noisier" when you correctly state that "the Senate in the far-left State has just now approved a bill which would establish its own committee" to STUDY the issue. As is evidenced by some of the comments above, people don't actually read the report well and fly off the handle...
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meme 1:53PM (8/22/2008)
Because it's not that simple. Read the bill. The committee is being established and must make recommendations on the best way to make quiet cars louder. The government is then required to enact their recommendations.
I've complained at long length over on ApteraForum about this. Here are some key points:
* There are 116,000 people in the US who have bad enough vision that they need either long canes or seeing eye dogs. Some people might cite the 1.2 million people who are "legally blind", but this includes people with 20/200 vision, and let me tell you, as someone who used to have worse than 20/200 vision, you can see approaching cars just fine (just not the details about them). The proper number is 116,000. Assuming that all of our cars end up quiet in the future, all 250 million of them, and assuming $100 for the noisemaker speaker and electronics, that's over $200,000 per blind person. Wouldn't they rather we just buy them each a house? :P
* Noise *pollution* is pollution, and it *does* have adverse health effects. Not just psychologically, either. There's a big long list of referenced examples here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_health_effects
Long-term exposure to noise can lead to hearing loss; hypertension (high blood pressure); headaches; fatigue; ulcers; vertigo; birth defects including harelip, cleft palate, and spinal defects; low birthweight; sleep disturbance; and speech and reading difficulties in children, especially dysgraphia. And it doesn't take loud noise, either. Having a low background noise level is good for health.
* Declaring that something is a problem based on anecdotes without any scientific study actually determining that it statistically is a problem in real-world situations, and then mandating a particular solution without having the scientific community determine what is the best solution (both financially and in terms of benefits to society) is a gross violation of how legislative process should be conducted on these kinds of issues.
* There are much better solutions than forcing everyone to have a noisemaker. For example, there are pocket-sized (4x4cm), long-life (2 years on 2 AA batteries) radar proximity detectors that have been developed. Supplying the proportionally few blind people who need them with one would be far cheaper than forcing an ever-expanding number of drivers of quiet cars to have noisemakers installed, and should be far more effective at preventing accidents. Depending on the type of radar, the person could get audio clues to distance, speed of approach, direction of approach, and even get information on stationary objects.
For those in CA who want to contact their elected officials: To find your Senator, use this site:
http://www.senate.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/districtmaps.HTP
and click the "Your Senator" link in the left column.
To contact the governor:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-558-3160 ( new number )
For email to the governor's office, use this site:
http://gov.ca.gov/interact#contact
EVan 1:44PM (8/22/2008)
Excellent post, meme.
+1 for information... I like it when I can learn as much (if not more) from the comments section on these posts as I can from the actual post itself.
zaedrus 12:24PM (8/22/2008)
There's validity to the blind issue (according to the insiders I know), but I love my next door neighbor's Prius. When she wakes up and goes to work early I sleep straight through it.
The Ford Escape on the other side wakes me sometimes, and the dipsquizzle ACROSS the street with the Harley is altogether another matter. And no, it's not the Harley that makes him a tool. He's certifiable without any help.
Making unsightly interstate sound barriers obsolete (when we're all in EVs) is also appealing. Or am I taking crazy pills?
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BoomBoom 12:28PM (8/22/2008)
I just always play loud music in my Civic Hybrid. I do like the idea of adding my own custom sounds though. I could make it sound like horses approaching. That'll confuse folks.
Of all the things to bother with legislation for, this is what we get?
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Jim 1:24PM (8/22/2008)
Leave it to CA to pull another stupid rabbit out of the hat. How about a playing card hitting the spokes on the front tire, makes as much sense.
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mike k. 2:32PM (8/22/2008)
I'm ashamed that I live in Maryland and they're wasting my tax payer money on dumb things like this, but to now have California getting into the mix on the issue is horrible.
Next thing they'll be saying is that all bicyclists need to attach their favorite baseball trading card to their spokes so they make enough noise for people to hear them coming as well.
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MarkR 3:00PM (8/22/2008)
This is so stupid. I can't believe they really think that it needs more noise. Why don't they just force a stinking diesel under the hood that will help with noise. O better yet put off road tires on it, get a good rumble going.
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Erik 3:02PM (8/22/2008)
I'm disgusted at how quickly the government is able to respond to something as stupid as the made-up issue of "too-quiet" cars.
Meanwhile Kalifornia still doesn't have a budget.
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jake 4:10PM (8/22/2008)
Unlike the cell phone issue, which some people still might argue over, this issue actually has no evidence. The same issue might happen in some luxury cars, but they only single out EVs and hybrids. At slow speeds for a lot of luxury cars, all you hear is basically tire noise. This is unfair and I would only agree with it if they measure slow speed DB levels of all cars and PROVE this is a real issue. So far there are no statistics that show this is a real danger.
When finally we are starting to get cars that have significantly less noise pollution, now we want to ADD more. Crazy.
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Mik_Cal 1:03AM (8/23/2008)
I just don't understand all the negativity here. If they make a minor whooshing sound, it won't really be noise pollution. Plus, all the commenters here are just not facing the facts: we use car noises as orienting signals to the danger of an approaching car. Everybody who is posting here complaining about this, has used car noise to avoid getting run over by a car unless you have always been encased in metal from day one.
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motorman 9:33AM (8/25/2008)
these are the same stupid people who say the wind turbine generators make TOO MUCH NOISE. so much for saving the planet. these people are unbelievable. we need one big earth quake so the whole state falls into the ocean.