The science fiction of the past becomes the reality of the future. The future has arrived today. The present was the future of the past. With this development in the automobile industry, it seems that those flying cars we see in sci-fi movies are but just a few years away from reality. Like these hybrid cars.
At present, car owners fuss over their car audio system, err, audio-video system. But soon, they would also be concerned about their cars' "sound system" from outside, or the "hum" of their cars. But this time, it would not be any ordinary hum, it would be "futuristic noise. Nissan sound engineers have developed "beautiful noise" for their Leaf electric car. See article below from Los Angeles Times.
Nissan Gives Silent Electric Cars 'Blade Runner' Appeal
A campaign backed by automakers and some lawmakers to make electric or hybrid cars noisier in a bid to increase safety for pedestrians and cyclists has taken a strange, “Blade Runner”-type twist.
Nissan sound engineers have announced that the Leaf electric car set for release next year will emit a “beautiful and futuristic” noise similar to the sound of flying cars -- or “spinners” -- that buzz around 2019 Los Angeles in Ridley Scott’s dystopian thriller based on a Philip K. Dick science fiction novel.
“We decided that if we’re going to do this, if we have to make sound, then we’re going to make it beautiful and futuristic,” Toshiyuki Tabata, Nissan’s noise and vibration expert, told Bloomberg. “We wanted something a bit different, something closer to the world of art.”
Automakers since 2007 have been exploring ways to increase the sound of electric or hybrid vehicles, which run almost silently at low speeds, after concerns were expressed by advocates for the blind and for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. Nissan says its system would turn off after the car reaches 12 mph, when, it says, tire noise is deemed loud enough to warn a pedestrian or cyclist that a car is approaching.
An act going through Congress -- The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2008 -- would require a federal ruling on whether a minimum sound level for hybrid and electric cars is needed and, if so, for the Department of Transportation to set that limit. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will release a report on the issue in January. And Nissan, alongside Toyota and Honda, has responded to concerns in Japan over sound-emission safety, and in a combined report with Japanese government agencies will present its findings later this year.
Some reports suggest that in the future, car owners will download a sound for their car the way many consumers buy ring tones for their cellphones. No word yet on whether electric vehicles will -- a la “Blade Runner” replicants -- get implanted memories, though.
by Craig Howie
No comments:
Post a Comment