From the NY Times: Blind Advocates ‘Disappointed’ in Nissan E.V. Sounds for Pedestrians - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com Seems the blind aren't too happy about the Leaf's whiny aversive sound being cancelable. It's just not enough. And there RIGHT. After all, who can say BAD about blind people ... because after all, they're blind! What are we, creepy insensitive cads? See? WE are the real issue ... it's not that the NFB is over demanding, right? Face it - you can't be any more LOW, than to be "against" the blind. You might as well hate flowers & little children. The NFB will play this line of emotion, to get there way ... UNLESS, ALL autos are forced to have noise. Good luck trying to get ICE cars on our side. It wouldn't surprise me in the least, if we found out that there was some 'anti-EV' pro-ICE auto group silently pushing this ... helping the NFB. Ok ... too conspiracy theorist-ish ... I admit it. .
I hate little children and could give a rats about the blind and their feelings (at least on this issue). I do like flowers though!
Bell-ing the EV... You know, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't out to get you Let's face it, the Leaf is poised to make EV's an actual option for the general public. This has got to have caught the attention of the oil lobby and I'm sure they will do anything they can to make it less attractive. This noise-maker requirement is a good first step. And I will have a lot more respect for the NFB's opinions when they start demanding the same noisemakers for near-silent ICE autos.
Perhaps we are thinking of this the wrong way. Maybe we should 1) Insist all Electric and partial electric powered cars MUST have a noise maker. 2) It MUST be on all the time (in case a blind person is crossing the freeway at midnight). 3) The noise maker MUST be loud. I'm thinking a Vuvuzela on every car. Brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it. The sound of a herd of elephants or a swarm of angry africanized bees as you move 25 mph down a residential street at 3 am. Hey, blind people could be out delivering newspapers at 3 am, gotta turn on the 140 db vuvuzela! Maybe we could get a Harley Davidson edition Vuvuzela.....
While you were joking, you do raise an interesting idea. I would advise anyone writing comments on news stories or other websites to call any noisemaker a vuvuzela. That word now has plenty of negative connotation for many people, at least for the next couple of weeks..
You're right. Only by pointing out the asininity via example, does such folly become evident, to those who are dense. How about THIS - If blind people are truly concerned about silent cars hitting them ... let's make a LAW that blind people MUST wear a strobe on the top of their head, or on a pole, connected to their wheelchair. Isn't it easier to strobe 1.2 million blind, rather than make millions and millions of noisy cars ? Call me crazy. .
That was exactly what I was thinking. Currently, the vuvuzela = spawn of satan, narrowly edging out BP in the latest field poll.
