[bwilson4web]

Hi folks,

Now there is a Senate bill to match the House bill, the two parts needed to get a law passed. Furthermore, Ray LaHood, a co-sponsor of the original "Bell the Hybrid," runs the Department of Transportation, which oversees the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the keepers of accident data.

Bob Wilson

[jdenenberg]

"Bell Bill" hasn't died yet.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101216/...uiet_hybrids_1

JeffD

[bwilson4web]

Hi,

I just learned S. 841, the "Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act" passed the House after earlier passing in the Senate. All that remains is Presidential signature.

I have opposed this legislation and still believe it is bad law. But unlike some Southerners, I don't try to re-fight the last battle. I did everything I could but sometimes you lose and it is time to move on. We are now in what I call "reality training" which means 'doing the experiment and finding out what happens.'

I've already sent my congratulations to the "Quiet Cars" community.

Bob Wilson

[jdenenberg]

Of course, if my next Hybrid (or EV) has a "noise maker" it can conveniently break.

JeffD

[bwilson4web]

Actually, it makes more sense to follow the experimental protocol. The reason is the advocates need the reality training. They need the 'lessons learned' from the experiment. If we cheat the test, they will never realize the mistake.

My thinking is we need to have a large number of BLEEPING hybrids surrounding the advocates . . . a BE IN. There are some people who only learn from bad experience.

Bob Wilson

[jdenenberg]

The Nissan Leaf CANNOT have an audible alarm in England!

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/bus..._facing_delay/

JeffD

[bwilson4web]

jdenenberg said:

The Nissan Leaf CANNOT have an audible alarm in England!

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/bus..._facing_delay/

Indeed although it was due to the backup alarm . . . like mine?


This short MPEG shows what it looks and sounds like:
http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/pri_mirror_050.mp4

I've been running this experiment for a while and I am starting to see an unexpected consequence: the driver begins to act as if the alarm gives them a right-of-way. This tends to reduce defensive driving when going in reverse and I've seen it in the eyes of pedestrians like the lady walking her dogs a week and a half ago when I backed out of our drive way to go to work. But there is another consequence of this flawed legislation.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/2011...NEWS/110309940

Delivery to dealerships of most of Hyundai's initial Sonata Hybrids has been delayed until at least late March because the brand is altering the car’s device that emits an artificial engine noise at low speeds.

Hyundai planned to have the car available in January but only a small number of the vehicles are in dealer stock, Hyundai spokesman Jim Trainor said. Trainor declined to say how many Sonata Hybrids have arrived in the United States but said about 700 units are in port or at sea
. . .
The delay comes after Hyundai decided late last year to change the car’s “virtual engine sound system.”
. . .
Hyundai had planned to have a button on the Sonata Hybrid’s instrument panel to turn the virtual engine sound system on and off, Trainor said. But late last year, after hearing that NHTSA was considering banning such switches, Hyundai decided not to install the button.

“We were hearing that at some point NHTSA would not allow [the noise device] to be turned off,” Trainor said. “We said, ‘why put this thing out there now and have to redo it in a few months?’”
. . .

Now a three month delay and 700 vehicles to be modified at the dealers may seem like small change. We've had a decade of hybrid electrics in the USA and 13 years in Japan so an additional 0.25 year delay is no big deal. It is only money and small change at that. But what hurts both literally and figuratively is the blood on the streets. There is no credible data that there is a safety issue that will show up in the traffic fatality rates.

At best, adding noise to hybrids makes them as deadly as today's gas cars and pedestrian safety and certainly vehicle/owner safety is not improved. The NHTSA FARS data showed no increased in Prius pedestrian fatalities 2001-07. The best we can hope for is noisy hybrids won't get worse. But the dark cloud, two incidents, seen from my backup alarm experiments (hopefully just my bias!) is not a harbinger of 'unexpected consequences.'

Bob Wilson

[Mckenzie500]

Porsche's Cayenne S hybrid is one among the best hybrid SUVs, If talking about the mileage, it could increase by 2 or 3 mpg more...But I'm pretty sure it does in future.