An article in the Mercury News examines whether or not hybrids are dangerous to the walking public due to their lack of decibels when operating at low speeds. The cacophony of noise produced by a gas-powered car serves as a warning of approach for many people, particularly the blind. Hybrids have the ability to operate with near silence on battery power at low speeds, which the article postulates could make them dangerous to the iPod-toting, cell phone-talking pedestrian who isn’t paying attention.
While no unusual cases of a hybrid harming an unsuspecting pedestrian have been recorded (at least not any that couldn’t also have occurred with a gas-powered vehicle), the article is filled with personal anecdotes of individuals who swear they’ve almost either hit someone with or been hit by a Prius at low speed. Without any hard data to draw a conclusion either way, the author seems to be sensationalizing a problem that doesn’t actually exist, at least not yet.
While we’re not convinced a hybrid’s silence qualifies the vehicles as a real threat to society, there are solutions already being considered. Some suggest having the radiator fan turn on when a hybrid is operating on its batteries alone, or perhaps a beep similar to the one emitted by commercial vehicles when backing up.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Sid @ Mar 15th 2006 3:08PM
I can understand the danger it may pose to the blind. But people who have normal eyesight have no excuse to get hit by an object that big. Maybe they should stop walking about with noise-cancelleation headphones?
mj10990 @ Mar 15th 2006 3:09PM
GIVE ME A BREAK
People should be paying attention to where they are walking. If they get run over by a silent hybrid then it must be natural selection because they are too damn stupid to live.
guyincognito @ Mar 15th 2006 3:11PM
I think the silent danger of hybrids is the toxic battery pack that will need to be disposed of somehow eventually.
Corey @ Mar 15th 2006 3:14PM
Absolutely sensationalizing. I find that pedestrians are constantly unaware of nearby vehicles. Go to any mall parking lot, and you'll find people walking down the center of the aisles, obviously to the vehicle behind them.
Corey @ Mar 15th 2006 3:16PM
*obviously = oblivious
Gr... shouldn't be "working" and commenting on Autoblog.
Mikael @ Mar 15th 2006 3:16PM
Not paying attention while in streets of the real world could earn you a darwin award.
Dirk Dundenburg @ Mar 15th 2006 3:16PM
How asinine. I guess we should be just as concerned about bicycles, electric wheelchairs and people on rollerblades as well, they are pretty silent too. Pure hyper-reactionary drivel. If you can't remember to look before stepping onto a roadway, as least do something good for mankind like signing your organ donor card before you get culled from the herd.
bernie @ Mar 15th 2006 3:16PM
If you want to avoid danger you could always just stay in bed. You can buy a plastic bubble for your kids and move to a town where everyone wears medievil armour.
Hummingbirds should be eradicated because they have very sharp beeks, move REALLY quickly and make no noise! YIKES.
Then you die anyway.
Oh, and the Bush Administration wants to remind all of us to remember to be afraid.
Sgt. Hulka @ Mar 15th 2006 3:16PM
Precisely. Just the fact that I am among the annointed elite driving a hybrid means that all other mortals are culpable, regardless of circumstance.
"For Mother Earth"
doug @ Mar 15th 2006 3:17PM
Back in the olden days, parents used to teach their kids to "look both ways before crossing the street." Of course, the Prius driver could put down the granola bar and watch the road, also!!
Tiger @ Mar 15th 2006 3:17PM
Is a hybrid really that much quieter than a Lexus LS 430 at idle?
TSW @ Mar 15th 2006 3:19PM
Hybrids may usher in a new era of noise-pollution-free urban life. No clacking of hooves, no clattering of hard wheels, just the whisper whoosh of soft tires on asphalt at sub-40 speeds.
God bless 'em for that.
The pedestrian, in CA, always has the right of way, but is ticketed for jaywalking. As long as the driver of the Hybrid is within the law (driving defensively), and the pedestrians are within the law (obeying crosswalks), there should be no conflict.
Mike @ Mar 15th 2006 3:20PM
OMG - another example of why Darwin was right....
So, which squeeky wheel do we grease here? The IDIOTS who are too blind (not actual blind people) to see something that large moving towards them or the backlash of decreased "mpg" by running an electrical fan on an electrical car?
Has anyone done a study on the number of golfers mowed down by golf carts???
JZeke @ Mar 15th 2006 3:22PM
I saw a fuel cell A-class Benz this weekend, and ya it was totally silent. However everyone else is right, people now are oblivious to the relatively quiet cars on sale today.
Solutions? Well if we ignore this and people get hit alot we will end up with ever uglier cars designed with front airbags and big pillow bumpers.
Maybe ALL cars could eventually be fitted with low-level audible warnings - not the annoying beep-beep of garbage trucks and reversing Toyotas - but a more imaginative tone thats focused in the direction its needed. The technology is currently nearing public release to focus speaker sounds in precisely the direction of the listener. Combine that with sensors that track pedestrian movements, and boom problem solved.
Corey W. @ Mar 15th 2006 3:24PM
I'd have to agree with #2 on this, it makes no sense for someone to get hit by something that big. You have to pay attention to what you're doing.
BTW, I'm not the same person as #3,#4, my spelling skill are a lot worse.. ;-)
Donny @ Mar 15th 2006 3:27PM
My wife is blind and partly deaf. It is hard enough for her to hear gasoline-powered automobiles. It is scary.
gabe @ Mar 15th 2006 3:30PM
Here we go. Yes I was nearly hit by a Prius a few months back. Yes I saw her, no I wasn't listening to an iPod.
She seemed to stop at the four way stop. So I proceeded as anyone would. They she apparently started moving (later claiming that the sun was in her eyes and she never saw me). Naturally I dove out of the way in time but since I didn't actually hear the car start moving it was much much closer than it would have been normally.
So yes this can be an issue.
Jellodyne @ Mar 15th 2006 3:31PM
I propose that all hybrid vehicles be required to sport multiple 12" subwoofers and the latest Ying Yang Twins CD.
Actually I read an article that a company who developed an electric motercycle found that it was extremely dangerous, on a account of no noise (less than a hybrid on battery since there's less wind noise and tire crunch), being a a much smaller item in your periphrial vision, yet faster than a standard bicycle. Probaly even harder to see than a bike because the rider is not peddalling and swaying back and forth, so it's a relatively static image by copmparison. Anyway they decided to add some fake engine noise just for safety reasons. They didn't say exactly what sound they ended up with, but it'd be pretty cool if all electric cars had to sound like Jetson's cars.
Or if you could buy custom engine-tones, so your car might have 'American V-8' or 'Genuine Mugen Tuner' and mine might sport 'Steam locomotive choo-choo with matching steam whistle horn-tone'
Max @ Mar 15th 2006 3:34PM
Yes! Finally the chance for me to mass market my patented playing cards in the spokes emergency warning system.
Tim UF @ Mar 15th 2006 3:35PM
lets just put those big buzzy mudding tires on every car... you know, like the knobby offroader tires
if you cant hear those coming, or see a prius with a 24" lift kit coming down the road at you, you have no business trying to cross the street (if you are blind, with a seeing eye dog, the dog will both see and hear it coming, so no worries)
and what happened to 'look both ways before you cross the street'... come on now