There's a cloud surrounding every silver lining. In this case, the London Free Press reports that the Canadian city's visually impaired population is worried about getting blindsided by hybrid cars. Ron Nurse expressed his concern over the issue, suggested adding a "flutter or a whirl" to hybrids, and revealed his, uh, bravery. "When you are standing on the corner, you have to think how close to the curb are you and you're left to wonder if it's OK to cross the street. More often then not, you just go." Kathryn Ruhland provided the spin control: "The biggest factor to keep in mind is that a majority of sound coming from the approaching car comes from the tires," the public relations manager insisted. Even so, the National Federation for the Blind is on the case.
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I’ve seen this type of article before. There is a relative cheap and very easy short term solution, and a more energy saving and slightly more costly long term solution. Not forgetting, that with electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell cars, this problem is only going to get worse, not better. (But in reality, VERY few people are blind in the general population – but this doesn’t mean their needs shouldn’t be taken into account – they should).
Initially, any hybrid cars could be built so that the a/c and/or coolant fan operates any time the car goes below, say, 20-30 mph. Above this, tire crunch is pretty evident, I’d say. Manufacturers could establish a standard. (The downside here is – yet more noise pollution in cities).
Long term, the worldwide organizations for the blind could cooperate with SAE and automakers, to develop a small transmitter in blind people’s canes (or maybe their dark glasses or a key fob). Hybrid (and future electric and hydrogen hybrid) cars could have receivers, and once within range of the blind, the cooling fans could simply be switched on. Or, perhaps, better yet – the transceiver with the blind person could “beep” and the car “beep” back (like in – NOT the car horn – but a small beep like when I lock my car).
My cooling fan is loud enough in my Prius that it would alert any blind person who isn’t also deaf.
On the very short term basis, all Prius and other hybrid drivers need to do what I already do, and watch out carefully for the blind. Not to mention the people who may as well be blind because they don’t bother looking when they walk out in the street. And the bicyclists who think that the rules of the road only apply to car drivers, you know, like stop signs and minor silly things like that.
This makes me chuckle considering the amount of times I’ve nearly hit inattentive pedestrians even with my hypersonic boomcannon muffler.
There’s got to be some cheap hack to put a 12V buzzer that comes on with ignition. If manufacturers want to get really fancy, the speaker would work in EV mode only.
Reminds me how Tesla’s founder was joking about piping in the sounds of horse hoofbeats to compensate for the silence of his upcoming car.
Maybe some sort of Tesla coil, to make pedestrian’s hair stand on end, could be mounted to alert blind-deaf people.
Certainly hybrids have a large enough electrical energy storage system to power such a device.
Maybe the London Free Press should find some real news to report on. If they have left over space they should do what the Toronto Sun does and have a Sunshine Girl.
This is an easy fix… just stick a playing card in the wheel spokes.