"Sound-Alert" systems by July 2012

Not clear from this article whether this will need to be retro-fitted to Roadsters.

"Quiet" Electric Cars Will Sound Alerts Under Rule - Bloomberg

Is any of this new? It seems like we've seen most of the "request for input" material before. This part at least seems like a new development:

NHTSA by law must write a standard by July 4, 2012, for an alert system that doesn’t require action by a driver or pedestrian to activate it, the agency said in a notice published on its website yesterday. All vehicles of the same make and model must have the same alert sound, the notice said.

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The "note" is this: http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/rulemaking/pdf/QuietCar-noi-draft.pdf

P.S. Moderators, sorry, I realise this overlaps with this thread, should have posted there, please merge if possible.

strider said:

They need to set a minimum dB level for ALL vehicles and not just single out EVs - there are ICEs that emit very little sound at idle that pose the same problem.

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Agreed - luxury ICE vehicles are very quiet. At the other end of the spectrum, bicycle couriers have the same problem in New York (and probably other major cities), and, even worse, they go the wrong way down one-way streets. I've seen two nasty accidents where pedestrians have been hit and I've almost been hit myself. The bike couriers sometimes ride with whistles in their mouths.

An obvious [to me] choice for the Roadster would be to have a button to play a specific MP3 sample at max volume. Michael Bolton would be a good choice, that usually sends people running. Of course we'd have to keep the top off at all times for this to work properly, but there are fewer pedestrians in the rain anyway, aren't there?

vfx said:

This is a duplicate thread of AMSL

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Acknowledged (see OP) ... My fault, a casualty of a typo when I searched for the topic.