The NHTSA will require all hybrid and electric vehicles to make noise at speeds below 19 mph from 2019 onwards.
The agency confirmed that all electric and hybrid vehicles on the market with four wheels and gross vehicle weight of less than 10,000 pounds need to make some kind of noise to alert pedestrians of their presence. Beyond 19 mph, the NHTSA says tire and wind noise alone is enough to make such vehicles audible to pedestrians.
The ‘minimum sound requirements’ have been made to reduce the risk of pedestrian crashes, particularly for the blind and visually-impaired and the NHTSA believes almost 2,400 injuries could be avoided per year.
Such proposed rules were first discussed in early 2013 and, in the years since, three different proposals were investigated. In the approved model, it is said that “sounds meeting the proposed requirements would contain acoustic elements designed to enhance detection and to aid pedestrians in recognizing the sound as coming from a motor vehicle.”
It isn’t yet known just what noises automakers will employ in their future models.
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