http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/25/too-quiet-electric-and-hybrid-cars-create-headache-for-us-regulators
'Too quiet' electric and hybrid cars create headache for US regulators
24 November 2015 Reuters
[image
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/25/too-quiet-electric-and-hybrid-cars-create-headache-for-us-regulators#img-1
US regulators want hybrid and electric cars to give audible warnings
at low
speeds. Photograph: Simon Stuart-Miller/Simon Stuart Miller
(commissioned)
]
Road safety authorities and automakers wrangle over new rules requiring
loudspeakers to warn cyclists and visually impaired people
US regulators are grappling with new rules for electric and hybrid
cars that
are too quiet, leading to fears of collisions with cyclists and
sight-impaired pedestrians unless the vehicles are fitted with
artificial
noise-making systems.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates the
odds of a
hybrid vehicle being involved in a pedestrian crash are 19% higher
compared
with a gasoline-powered vehicle.
The car safety regulator has said that if the proposal were implemented
there would be 2,800 fewer pedestrian and bicyclist injuries
annually. There
are about 125,000 such accidents each year.
But the regulators have been forced to delay until at least March
2016 a
government plan, in the works since 2013, to require “quiet cars” –
vehicles
that operate at low speeds without a gasoline engine running – to
add new
audio alerts at low speeds.
The proposed rules would require automakers like Tesla, General
Motors, Ford
and Toyota to add automatic audio alerts to electric and hybrid
vehicles
traveling at 18 miles per hour or less.
This would apply to hybrid and electric cars, SUVs, trucks, buses and
motorcycles. Advocates for the blind have pushed for the rules.
Automakers have raised concerns about the alerts, saying they are
too loud
and too complicated. They also want them required only at lower speeds.
Under a 2010 law passed by Congress the NHTSA was supposed to
finalize the
regulations by January 2014. Automakers will get a minimum of 18
months from
the time the rules are finalized before they must begin adding the
alerts.
NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind said in July the regulation would be
finalized by November – a timetable the agency says in a new government
document that it will not be able to meet.
The Transportation Department, in explaining the latest delay, said
in a
document posted on its website that “additional coordination is
necessary”.
NHTSA declined to elaborate on Tuesday.
NHTSA in 2013 said it expected the rules would cost the auto
industry about
$23m in the first year because automakers would need to add an external
waterproof speaker to comply.
[© 2015 Guardian News]
https://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/us-delays-quiet-car-rules-covering-hybrids-and-electric-cars-until-march-2016/
US delays ‘quiet car’ rules covering hybrids and electric cars until
March
2016
24 Nov 2015 Reuters U.S. regulators are delaying rules that would
require
electric and hybrid cars to alert sight-impaired pedestrians and
bicyclists
until at least mid-March, according ...
...
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/11/feds-postpone-hybrid-ev-warning-noises-next-year/
Feds Postpone Hybrid and EV Warning Noises Until Next Year
November 25, 2015 Federal regulators have postponed rules to
require hybrid
and EV carmakers to add audible warnings to their cars to alert nearby
pedestrians, bicyclists and visually impaired people, Reuters
reported. The
audible …
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