We’re slowly getting used to the pretty silent electric cars and sometimes even motorcycles, flying past us in traffic with that specific, almost humming-bird like sound you don’t even hear coming until they’re right next to you.
But that sound we’ve come to attribute to them will soon be a thing of the past, at least in Europe.
New concerns have emerged from the European Union, who states that electric cars are too quiet and are putting pedestrians at risk because they cannot be heard.
So, as of today, the new electric cars that will roam the European streets will have to be fitted with a noise-emitting device known as the Acoustic Vehicle Alert System (AVAS), which starts getting noisy as soon as the car drives under 19km/h (12 Mph).
It’s not a very annoying sound, but you’ll be able to hear it, as you can see in the video below, courtesy of BBC Radio 5’s Twitter channel.
All electric vehicles, including those already on the market, will have to get fitted with AVAS by 2021. The ones who have already been purchased and travel out and about on the streets will get retrofitted.
However, a number of accessibility advocates don’t think this is enough and they have demanded for electric cars to make noise at all speeds while others, who hoped that the introduction of electric cars would mean quieter streets, haven’t been happy with the new rule.
U.K Roads Minister Michael Ellis has said that he understood the concerns of those who are visually impaired and that he wanted “the benefits of green transport to be felt by everyone”. He added that this “new requirement will give pedestrians added confidence when crossing the road.”
In addition to that, the U.K is also planning to have diesel and petrol vehicles banned by 2040. This comes after it was said that air pollution is allegedly linked to around 40,000 premature deaths in the country.
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