Nissan Electric Vehicles Adopt Noisemakers

Ever since their inception, hybrid vehicles have been lauded for the ability to conduct their business in complete silence. However, there is a strong argument against such an ability, as it has resulted in more than a few instances of unaware pedestrians inadvertently being introduced to a moving vehicle. For this reason, many critics have cited pedestrian safety as the primary reason why North American governments and safety groups need to mandate the installation of form of noisemaking device to ensure the next generation of electric vehicles remain audible.

According to their most recent reports, Nissan is looking to head off such a mandate by equipping their Leaf and Kuga electric and hybrid vehicles with a digital sound device that creates audible tones across a wide range of wavelengths to ensure that tone-deaf pedestrians can still hear it. Altering the sound during acceleration and deceleration, it should effectively replace the more traditional exhaust note of an internal combustion engine and keep the visually impaired and inattentive pedestrian masses safe.