Chevy Volt Engineers Grapple With the Sound of Silence

DETROIT — General Motors is developing a pedestrian-friendly alert system for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt so that the electric car, which is virtually silent at low speeds, can help alert blind pedestrians and others to its presence on the road.

"We want it to be an 'excuse me' sound as opposed to a 'hey you' sound," said Andrew Farah, Chevrolet Volt vehicle chief engineer, in a YouTube video posted on the corporate GM FastLane blog.

The engineers are tinkering with the Volt's horn by having the pedestrian-friendly alert system issue a brief stream of beeps. The video noted that the blind rely on sound cues when they prepare to cross a street, a problem with the Volt because it has a "drastically different sound cue or nothing at all."

Writing in the FastLane blog, Farah noted that "vehicle sound is not noise; it's an audio cue and information — for everyone. The blind must listen for traffic to determine when it is safe to enter an intersection, to safely navigate a parking lot or to determine when a driveway is clear. Now think about the hundreds of thousands of people that head to the streets daily on foot or on a bicycle as a form of transportation, to play, or to exercise. They also rely on their hearing to know when automobiles are present."

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a recent report that silent operation of low-speed hybrid vehicles is an issue for all pedestrians, not just the blind. In some situations, electric or hybrid vehicles are twice as likely to be involved in collisions with pedestrians.

Inside Line says: What is needed is an industry-wide standard and an easily recognized audio cue to deal with this critical issue. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent