Safety First: European EV’s To Be Fitted With Sound Emitters
Silence is not always good. Safety first.
Starting July 2019, all new electric and hybrid vehicles sold in Europe will have to emit a noise when travelling at low speeds. Current electric cars will also have to be retrofitted with devices by 2021.
Safety activists argued that pedestrians are at risk of being hit by electric vehicles travelling silently at low speeds in urban areas especially.
Under the new EU rules, manufacturers will have to fit an alert system to new electric vehicles so they can be heard at low speed. The rules state that an “acoustic vehicle alerting system” should be used at speeds up to 12.5mph, and also when reversing. They should also sound similar to a normal engine.
Chris Hanson-Abbot, owner of Brigade Electronics which distributes these safety devices, told the Daily Mail: “The objective is to have warnings which audible but which are not the least bit environmentally disturbing.”
The sound is said to be “white noise” that will cut out when a car goes above 20mph and is said to be “very pleasant”.
I am very curious to see how “very pleasant” will sound.
Those particularly at risk are blind people and cyclists listening to music through their headphones who are up to 40 per cent more likely to be hit by electric cars than conventional vehicles.
By 2030, there are predicted to be up to 9 million electric cars on UK roads.
