Future Eco-Friendly Cars To Include Fake Vroom for Safety?

Automakers have succeeded something desired for decades: cars that are almost perfectly silent. This quietness reduces what is referred to as phonic pollution . But now a new, unforeseen problem has risen: cars are dangerously silent.

Yes, that's right. I mean who wouldn't love a car that glides quickly and silently through the city like in cool 80s SF films.? But auditive feedback has become part of how people cross the street, make turns or even park. Sure, plug-in hybrid and electric cars, it turns out, not only reduce air pollution, they cut noise pollution as well with their whisper-quiet motors.

So safety experts, worried that hybrids pose a threat if pedestrians, children and others can't hear them approaching, want automakers to supply some digitally enhanced vroom. Vroom!, Vroom! indeed, this kinda seems lame from where I am standing.

But wait, this gets even more weird.

Working with Hollywood special-effects wizards, some hybrid auto companies have started tinkering in sound studios, rather than machine shops, to customize engine noises. The Fisker Karma, an $87,900 plug-in hybrid expected to go on sale next year, will emit a sound - pumped out of speakers in the bumpers - that the company founder, Henrik Fisker, describes as "a cross between a starship and a Formula One car."

Nissan is also consulting with the film industry on sounds that could be emitted by its forthcoming Leaf battery-electric vehicle, while Toyota has been working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the National Federation of the Blind and the Society of Automotive Engineers on sounds for electric vehicles.

"One possibility is choosing your own noise," said Nathalie Bauters, a spokeswoman for BMW's Mini division, who added that such technology could be added to one of BMW's electric vehicles in the future.

Source: MIBZ