>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…
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.
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.