By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews
You may recall I wrote earlier about how quiet hybrids are, and the test conducted by the U.S. National Federation of the Blind’s Committee on Automotive and Pedestrian Safety. And yes, a hybrid car running totally on battery power is so quiet a blind person, or even a sighted person not paying enough attention, could be in serious trouble when the hybrid “sneaks up” on them.
Lotus, the automobile company, not the makers of the late Lotus 1-2-3, has come up with a possible solution. The Lotus “Safe & Sound” sytem (above) generates an artificial engine noise that rises and falls, just like the sounds of a normal engine, during acceleration. Once the regular engine kicks in, the system automatically turns off.
Don’t think this is all altruism on Lotus’ part. Congress has legislation pending which, if it passes, would require the Transportation Department to spend two years studying the problem before developing safety standards. After that, automakers would have two years to comply. Guess whose technology would then have a big leg up, since Lotus is already working on it.
Of course, Lotus isn’t the first to come up with something: Enhanced Vehicle Acoustics, which has the backing of the National Federation of the Blind, was founded August 2007 by Stanford University-based researchers in electrical engineering. Their PANDA, or “Pedestrian Awareness Noise-emitting Device and Application” system (below) was announced last month.
Lotus has its own high-profile partners; it’s collaborating with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association on its system.
Watch the Lotus-produced video below:
And, equal time being what it is, here’s a video highlighting the PANDA system:
Pay attention to whats going on around you and you will SEE it coming. geesh!
Unless, of course, you’re blind.
This would be an incredible boon to bicyclists. I love how hybrid owners blast past silently you thinking they’re being so damn eco friendly while nearly taking you out. You’d have a much better chance of dodging them with this sort of device
The problem with the PANDA system is that the placement makes absolutely no sense. Having the speakers in the wheel wells and in the lower bumper cover almost guarantees that their effectiveness will be reduced by road tar, grime, mud, or worse yet – punctured by random road trash and stones.
Placing them behind the grill and the bumper, with a channel system to direct the sound (think like an audio exhaust) would make much more sense. You could protect the audio sources, make it to where the channel system had adequate protection and drainage, if necessary, and it would actually make it more effective, depending on the design.
Think more of a bose system, with all its passages for sound. Also, sound direction could be controlled via a servo or by tying into the rack and pinion, instead of by amplification. It makes more sense to rotate the source than it does to increase the power draw.
Why isn’t this needed on bicycles too? They are silent and move quickly and a blind person could easily not hear them. How about on pedestrians too?
Surely there is a better way.
And how about on cats? Those things sneak right up on you, even if you’re not blind.
good idea, it’d be nice to not be able to hear the fake engine noise from inside the car (with the windows up), though
Lame
Blind people don’t seem any more likely to be eaten by a grue than regular sighted people, even when they can’t tell if they’ve walked into a room, and it is pitch black. There have never been any Frobozz lurking noise generators on grues. This all seems kind of silly.
thank you for the Zork perspective, that made my day.
Propogation of noise pollution….
Hey, it’s a modern version of the Red Flag Act.
So much for energy conservation. 300 watts?!
How about what every young kid likes to do? Stick cards in the spokes. Well, seriously, something mechanical and passively driven without hardly any drain on the power would be more practical.
The earlier “bose” principle would actually work quite well with a flared horn at the end of a tube. Although the noise of the rack and pinion would probably not be loud enough. A simple mechanical “Clicker” box attached to a moving part would probably be much better.
A simple dual coil solenoid (one coil for each direction, so power is needed to keep it there) could engage and disengage it.
Sometimes engineers over-engineer a solution. Also, this is only needed at street speeds, so the internal computer could calculate the proper time to enable it.
A simple and cheap solution with next to nothing in energy drain.
oops! That’s “..so NO power is needed to keep it there”
This is completely backward. I’m tired of motor noise already.
Build some low decibel whistles into the car body or chassis and design them to get louder as the car moves faster, but never to be extremely loud in the first place.
Low drag and no extra electricity required.
They already make deer whistles that are ultrasonic so only deer can hear them. You could probably modify them to be just out of hearing range and then also make a small device that blind people could fit to their ear that would allow them to hear it.