"Their noiseless glide has seen them dubbed the silent killers of the road.
But electric cars could soon be given special 'signature tunes' so that pedestrians can hear them coming and avoid stepping out into their path.
The decision comes following concerns from road safety experts that the 'green' credentials of the zero-emission cars may be overshadowed by a rising accident and death toll caused by the fact that they are so eerily quiet.
Regulators in the European Union, Japan and the United States are considering allowing manufacturers an array of sounds - from the conventional brum brum car engines to sci-fi sounds from Star Wars.
They could even develop individual 'signature' sounds to differentiate them on the road.
Research by the University of California highlighted the noiseless dangers of electric cars in a recent study which found that hybrid vehicles came 40 per cent closer to pedestrians than their combustion engine counterparts before they could detected.
The market is currently dominated by the quirky and slightly eccentric niche products like the G-Wiz favoured by hard-core environmentalists or the petrol petrol-electric hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius which almost silent when running on electric power only."
Um carro com a marcha imperial era qualquer coisa...
ResponderEliminarSem Duvida, qualquer dia vai se na rua, e até se pensa que vem ai o Dark Vader! Que medo!
ResponderEliminarlol não acho que isto vá para a frente... lá instalarem algum tipo de alarme através dum sensor ainda vá que não vá agora efeitos do Star Wars? E porquê do Star Wars? Porque não o rugido dos dinossáuros do Parque Jurássico? lol! ou então aquelas buzinas que emitem sons de animais! de qualquer forma claro é algo preocupante, mas para isso há as passadeiras para se atravessar em segurança!
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