Recent studies conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that electric vehicles (EVs) were twice as likely to have an accident involving pedestrians, cyclists and the visually impaired at low speeds, compared to non electric vehicles.
EVs are considerably quiet, thus they constitute a safety hazard for pedestrians and the visually impaired who rely on the noise of conventional combustion engines as a warning of a vehicle’s presence while navigating outdoors. Research conducted by the NHTSA and other global traffic agencies agree that this is a valid concern.
As electric and hybrid automakers such as Tesla and Toyota become more prominent on the roads, traffic administrators are taking action to curb the number of injuries and deaths caused by inaudible EVs.
A new rule, dubbed ‘The quiet-car rule’, would require all EVs and hybrids to have an Electric Vehicle Alert for Detection and Emergency Response (eVADER) that emits audible sounds at low speeds by 2018.
The novel solution consists of embedding external speakers to a vehicle’s chassis. The speakers would emit audible sounds in a pedestrian’s direction when the vehicle is traveling less than 18 miles per hour.
NHTSA research estimates that equipping eVADER on EVs would save 35 lives over each model year and could prevent about 2,800 injuries.