The Silence of the Cars
Have you ever started to cross the street and stopped short realizing that a soundless electric car is coming toward you? Have you ever started to change lanes and realized that an electric car was in your blind spot?
The silence of electric cars is dangerous — eliminating an important clue about what is near and how near and how fast approaching.
By national mandate, electric cars make noises, as a safety feature to alert pedestrians and other drivers of imminent danger.
Better still, as such vehicles come to predominate, each should generate a unique sound, like an auditory fingerprint. Then a vehicle could be identified not just by its license plate (that can be altered and faked and may be difficult to see) but also by its distinctive noise. Then a witness or a traffic video camera could record the sound and that could serve as the audio equivalent of a fingerprint identifying the vehicle involved in a hit-and-run or other crime.
