Electric vehicles 'too quiet'

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,273
This isn't a new thing the developers couldn't have been aware of, the trolley busses (dumped for cheaper IC busses, short sighted or what) used to be known as the silent death.
 
Soldato
Joined
11 May 2007
Posts
8,906
Location
Surrey
Rather than knee jerking and blaming the car, maybe it should be considered where people are getting run over. I'd imagine car parks were top of the list, so perhaps they should be designed in a way that keeps pedestrians in their own zone/area/walkway instead of having to walk with the cars.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2004
Posts
18,302
Location
Birmingham
Not really as it would be dependant on how loud they have then set to. As they heard me shout at them, to make them jump out of their skin, it would indicate that it wasn’t so loud they couldn’t hear thing.

But then where do you set the level? Loud enough to be audible through headphones regardless of the level of noise being played through them? I'd rather not give the chavs round here an excuse to have something louder than their fart can exhaust every night at 3am...
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jul 2005
Posts
7,069
Location
S. Yorkshire
I had loads of people in car parks this weekend jump in surprise when they realised I was driving behind them. At car park speeds my EV is nigh on silent. Over 20mph it sounds as loud as any other car through road noise.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2012
Posts
8,332
Honestly, mate, I have no idea. I can't imagine what it's like. But they do.

I presume they need to stick to areas they know, and are probably accompanied when going to new areas? But I really don't know.

sounds about right, like popping to the shops or something like that.

funny was on holiday in munich a few years back and the restaurant we frequented for our evening meals was pretty popular with the local blind community, took us a while to figure out why the staff were all being extra friendly to all these old geezers in sunglasses :D

needless to say the absence of white sticks and guide dogs was what threw us.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
29 Mar 2003
Posts
56,794
Location
Stoke on Trent
How does a fully blind person navigate etc with just a stick?

I live in a family with lots of 'blind' people and my wife has to get checked out every year.
What I do know is that being 100% blind is very rare - apparently.
A mate has just had his first Guide Dog and he sees as though he is looking down a straw, it used to be a toilet roll when I first met him in the 80s.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jul 2005
Posts
7,069
Location
S. Yorkshire
None of our ambulance fleet have had white noise generators since I started 5 years ago. Given we were using 8 year old vehicles at that time that means at least 13 years since they could potentially have been fitted. I'm not sure we ever did.
 
Soldato
Joined
2 May 2011
Posts
11,868
Location
Woking
People should just open their eyes and look around, be more aware of their surroundings.

I almost entirely use my hearing to cross the road. I get very disoriented when I've got headphones in, so that's the only time I really look. Why look if you can hear what's coming?

I haven't found any electric cars quiet enough to sneak up on me, though I guess it could still happen.
 
Back
Top Bottom