Hacker News Reader

Comment by upofadown | Hacker News Reader

>Federal safety officials expect to finalize rules later this year requiring all hybrid and electric cars to play fake engine sounds to alert passersby, a change that experts estimate could prevent thousands of pedestrian and cyclist injuries.

Yeah, because those pedestrian and cyclists should be responsible for staying out of the way of badly driven cars... Just think how safe things would be if we cranked things up so loud that drivers could hear other cars.

View on HN

The worst part about that is that car noise is an actual ecological and "quality of life" threat, combated in many places by noise walls built around roads. Forcing cars to be loud is the worst possible decision that could be made.

The flip side is that modern cars can accelerate from the 5kph that they exit their driveway at to 50kph with no noticeable noise.

I have almost been run over this way. Look to the left, no cars on the road, look to the right, no cars, look back to the left JESUS CHRIST.

Hopefully automatic pedestrian detection will become standard in the next few years, but in the mean time I need to be able to hear your high speed death-ram when I'm not facing it.

Perfectly happy for it to be something other than simulated engine noise, but I need an audible cue.

I'm hard of hearing, and to first order I cannot ever hold a conversation in public in a city: outside it's cars, inside it's crowds and music. Once upon a time I looked forward to electric cars taking over; now I expect this regulation to persist long after there are good other solutions for safety.

Also, companies will try to differentiate their brand using this fake sound. So we will go from a mostly-bassy-white-but-still-annoying ICE noise to very specific and recognizable frequencies and tones that will make a misophonia sufferer want to kill themself.

You make it sound like it's only car drivers that ignore road rules.

Only someone who strongly defined themselves by their method of transport would interpret the statement like that.

I take it you've never been driving along and had a pedestrian absent-mindedly step into the road in front of you. That's the kind of thing that engine noise helps avoid. Read some of the other comments on this page.

For what it's worth, most of my travel is on trams - not foot, cycle, or car. Thanks for the patronising comment, though.

The sudden change of subject suggests that the patronizing comment was appropriate...

We are not dissing your tribe... You don't have to be defensive...

What tribe do you think I belong to? I was pointing out that anyone can be negligent.

And seriously: "Yeah, I was being patronising, but don't be defensive about it"? If you can't handle being called on your own behaviour, don't do it to others.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com