Ever since the introduction of the first electric vehicles and hybrids there have been questions raised regarding the safety factor of these quiet vehicles hitting an unsuspecting pedestrian. Now, after many years of fruitless debate, the House has voted to approve the bill following the Senate’s approval vote last week.
The bill essentially aims to find a minimum levels of audible output required from a vehicle in order for it to be safety identifiable to those who are vision impaired, and according to The Detroit News, the bill received an overwhelmingly supportive vote of 379-30।
What type of sound, or how loud the sound will need to be is not yet known. Instead, the bill identifies the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as the responsible party for determining those factors in order to allow the blind, children and other otherwise at-risk pedestrians to “reasonably detect a nearby electric or hybrid vehicles” while traveling at slower speeds.
The bill did stipulate, however, that the sound will not be defeat-able by the drivers, meaning there is no option to turn the safety function off like some safety technologies such as traction control sometimes allow।
Currently, most hybrid vehicles on the road lack this technology, but the Nissan Leaf has a device that is said to automatically notify pedestrians of its presense, while the Chevrolet Volt extended range electric vehicle has an activate-able chirping sound. The Prius does not currently offer such a device, but options are in testing in Japan.
