On September 2nd I wrote about the Nissan Leaf, the first zero-emission vehicle that will be mass produced. Great news for the eco-warriors out there as another step has been taken to clean up the roads a little bit… However, this is bad news for blind people.
You see these new hybrid and electric vehicles don’t make any noise. If you have ever gone for a ride in a hybrid or ZEV you will know what I’m talking about, they make no sound at all. It’s as if they haven’t even been turned on yet. Well for people who depend on sound alone to decide whether it’s safe or not to cross the street this has become a bit of a problem.
To fix this problem the folks at Nissan were originally going to give the Leaf an artificial sound that would simulate a regular car engine. But I guess when you can make a vehicle sound like anything you want a regular old car engine is kind of boring, and apparently Nissan noise and vibration expert Toshiyuki Tabata agrees:
We decided that if we’re going to do this, if we have to make sound, then we’re going to make it beautiful and futuristic. We wanted something a bit different, something closer to the world of art.
So Nissan decided to make the Leaf sound like a Police spinner from Blade Runner (see video below).
The sound will start as soon as the car is turned on and then it will switch off automatically around the 20kmh mark when the tire noise is loud enough for pedestrians to hear. Now Nissan isn’t the first company to use this technique, Fisker Karma decided that their $80,000 electric car would replicate the sound of a jet engine and a Formula One car. Yikes! Wouldn’t want to live next to that guy.
Cheers!
jordenf
If you would like to see some more pictures of the Nissan Leaf you can do so on my Flickr Feed.
Filed under: eco, vehicles | Tagged: artificial sound, blade runner, eco, eco warrior, electric, electric sound, ev, hybrid, leaf, nissan leaf, nissan zev, police spinner, zev
