The Nissan LEAF is likely going to be the first mass produced all electric vehicle and initial reports have it pegged as being quite successful as pre-sales are all sold out.
There are undoubtedly lots of good things about the LEAF (using no gas at all and no emissions being the biggest), but like everything there are a few downsides. One in particular is that the Nissan LEAF makes no noise at all when in motion since it is all electric. If you’ve ever driven a hybrid on electric mode only, you know that it is eerily quiet and takes some getting used to.
This may not seem like such a big deal, but it probably is a big deal if you’re blind. The blind rely heavily on their other heightened senses (such as hearing) to know if they are in danger of being hit by a vehicle. Obviously they can’t get out of the way of something they can’t hear.
So to combat that, Nissan has added a fake sound track to the LEAF to help the blind. The sound kicks in a lower speeds. And it sounds like some sort of rocketship from the future. Odd, but kinda cool. The LEAF makes a different chiming sound when in reverse (hear it after the jump).
That is all fine and good, but the problem with fake sounds is that it doesn’t take long for them to get immensely irritating. You only need to be the owner of a cell phone to know what I’m on about. You eventually just turn everything to vibrate.
Well with the LEAF, you can apparently turn off the sounds as well, which I suspect most people will do once the novelty wears off. But what about the blind people?!
The Federation for the Blind has complained to Nissan about this. Nissan has since made it so that the sound re-enables for each trip. Not sure if that will work or not.
In any event, very interesting stuff.
[New York Times]
