Lotus - lets have some fun

I am sorry but I can't figure out what "it" refers to.

Noise is the only system in place today and it already kills 4,700 pedestrians every year. It is already failing and the cost is measured in the loss of human life, paid in blood and broken bodies.

Start with this link:
Requirements of Remote Keyless Entry (RKE) Systems - Maxim

A computer network engineer, this is just one part of the solution. But it is the foundation used for the special keyfobs. For a more complete description, read my submission to the NHTSA docket record.

Let me suggest that you ask one of your friends with a car if they will let you try the "panic" button or the button that honks the horn and flashes the lights. Tell them you would like to understand how far away from the car it works and would like to press the button yourself.

Understand that the special pedestrian keyfob would not have a button but work automatically. Furthermore, it would not sound the horn like the "panic" button but briefly 'bleep' it as well as flash the lights for the deaf. There are other design features but for now, ask a neighbor to let you feel one and try it ... when it won't cause a neighborhood disturbance.

It only 'bleeps', not a full throated honk and only briefly to alert the driver, the pedestrian and by-standers. The keyfob surrounds the special pedestrians with a mobile, electronic safety zone that lets everyone know they are there. Best of all, if I design it, cars will instantly go silent as soon as they pass the pedestrian. This avoids the noise masking problem.

In our country there is a type of accident at railroad crossings where as soon as one train clears the intersection, a waiting car pulls forward into the path of another train that had been approaching from the opposite direction and hidden or masked by the first.

You may have noticed a few occasions where one car just passed and as you started across the street, another car that had been approaching from the area of receding first car suddenly shows up. The first car's sound had masked the on-coming car in the next lane. The exhaust noise from the first helping to mask the second approaching car.

In the keyfob system I would design, build and test, as soon as the car knows it is leaving the presence of a pre-school child, it goes silent. Any noise the car makes while leaving the hazard area serves no good but to block the sound of another car approaching the potential impact zone. The short "bleep" also serves another vital function that no form of steady sound could ever achieve.

The "bleep" has quiet time between that allows other car "bleeps" to be heard. In contrast, the proposed steady state, noise makers are like a party in which everyone is trying to be heard ... no one is being heard because of the din of the noise makers.

What other safety equipment should we ditch because it leads drivers to "pay less attention?"

Noise makers do not make pedestrians safer. Adding a noise maker to the exhaust pipe would not have saved the 25 kids backed over by their Moms, Dads and neighbors. We love our children and believe their 25 deaths deserve at least as much care and attention as the 5 blind who died in the same year.

Not one of the 5 blind that died was struk by a hybrid electric but mostly by pickup trucks. Even the blind deserved at least a horn "bleep" warning and not just a real or imitation engine noise maker.

Bob Wilson

 

Ahhh, I see it now. I too was curious about hybrid electric accident rates and in particular, the Prius since it was the first hybrid electric sold in the USA with an electric mode. That is why the Prius-to-pedestrian accident rate is so important.

When Dr. Hogan analyzed the Prius and non-Prius pedestrian accident rate the numbers came in (from memory so I don't have the units handy
.11 - Prius
.12 - non-Prius

These numbers are so close together that they are virtually identical in statistics.

I think it makes sense to add additional text to the existing airbag warning on all of our sun visors. All airbag cars carry a warning about small people potentially being injured and what you must do to minimize their risk.

I would agree that each hybrid electric should have a warning about electric-only operation and list the speed ranges. This is also important because the car's efficiency increases significantly if the driver stays in that range. But it makes sense to warn the driver to take special caution when pedestrians are about.

A warning like this can be done within 90-120 days and retrofitted to all hybrid electric cars ... certainly when they are sold.

I don't know if it is mandatory but if you were in some of our parking lots. At Christmas time, the parking lots can easily have 2-5,000 cars and someone will forget where they left their car. We see panic in the faces of parents laden with gifts trying to find their cars and the relief when their car beeps and flashes the lights ...

The only new hardware is a special keyfob for pre-schoolers, the blind and other special pedestrians. They would actually use the same electronics as the current keyfobs but with a universal broadcast code. The vehicle electronics is already there and only needs a software change to recognize the broadcast address and react appropriately.

Today, our cars come with two keyfobs and I have no problem with mandating a third, the pre-schooler keyfob. This would be battery operated and coded to expire in three years, long enough for a two year old to reach kindergarten age. The keyfobs for the blind would have a 50-80 year code and could be fitted with a self-powered generator. But I'm starting to go beyond what I would like to discuss in public.

Actually I'm looking for an ambassador, someone in the blind community who can serve as a bridge between our communities. I think you came with some assumptions about hybrid electric owners, some of which others have through crude attempts at humor, nurtured. But I think you may have a better understanding of what we are after.

I have tried to discuss these issues with some of the North American blind community leaders but they seem to suffer from what I call,"selective audio accuity"--they only hear what they want to hear. This makes a dialog difficult. But sometimes, an ambassador can 'translate' between our communities and help us work together for common goals.

I am not so naive as to believe all of us will come together and be great friends with a joint resolution. Rather, I seek consensus, the absence of violent objection. If you can help us reach out to the blind community, an open forum where we can exchange our ideas and opinions, much like we have just done, we may yet make progress without having someone stomp off and try to 'burn down the house.'

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

ps. Vous venez de Suisse de langue française ?

 

I asked a Japanese friend, Ken@Japan, and he was able to find pedestrian accident rates but nothing that broke it out by the condition of the pedestrian. As you might expect, the Japanese have a fraction of the pedestrian accidents that we have in the USA per person. Also the Japanese have done stellar work in putting digital cameras in fleet vehicles for accident research.

I also suggested in my submission that the NHTSA contact the United Kingdom that has an extensive network of street cameras. I suspect the UK traffic safety and monitoring authorities may have actual video of pedestrian accidents and we might be able to learn something.

Actually, he is in a safety zone that travels with him. The horn 'bleeps', not a constant stream but just the traffic around him and lets him know from which direction the potential threat is coming. He still has the engine and tire noise from other vehicles and the horn 'bleeps' can be modulated to be in proportion to the risk. One easy trick is to ... again, we are getting into areas I would prefer not to discuss in public, yet.

It is even worse with non-hybrid owners. Many of them first react by laughing and suggesting we have playing cards mounted so the spokes of our wheels will flip them. It is the first reaction of those who have not been following the issue and looked at it deeply.

That explains your excellent English. We share a common language source, low-German, from Friesland, that pretty much replaced the Celtic with Saxton. I had occasion to visit the USA Library of Congress and see a 1500s version of the Lord's Prayer. I was struck by how easy it was to see the Saxton-Germanic roots married to the Norman verbs.

Later,
Bob Wilson

 

I had occasion to study the history of the English language and wrote a term paper on it. So I was able to see how Saxton, Angles and Normans merged their native languages to become Elizabethan English. It was a fascinating study made more interesting by understanding the origins of 'low German' as opposed to 'high German' as in mountainous.

On your other comments, I'll reply after a bit but I have chores to do. I will be quite happy to expand upon each element. Remember, this is a dialog but sometimes I am called away.

Later,
Bob Wilson

 

This was unexpected:

Someday you may realize what this says about your commitment to blind safety.

There are 25 dead kids, their Moms and Dads who need the keyfob.

Bob Wilson

 

Not to worry, they are related.

For the blind and ordinary pedestrians, correct. We can find no evidence that our quiet hybrid electrics pose a risk to pedestrians that couldn't be addressed by a warning on the sun visor, next to the airbag warning.

Except for the expense, you are correct. The software change for our cars adds recognition of a universal keyfob. It remains a one time expense added to the manufacturing download. There is no other change to our cars. In fact there is no change to any keyfob equipped car beyond the software.

The keyfob electronics are also straight forward, practical and another profit center. It requires those who want safety to do something. Refusal to make even this modest effort is as telling as our troll's last posting.

What is most enjoyable about this effort, the special keyfob works and the sound generators do not. In any head-to-head competition, the keyfob blows the sound generators away and not by a little but a lot. It is to pedestrian safety what our hybrids have been to vehicle mileage and we can use that as a powerful negotiating point for lower insurance rates.

These efforts are part of the whole addressing:

‘‘Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2008’’
​

By all means, contact your representative(s) (why stop with just your district?) and let them know your opinion. Write a letter to the editor; post a reply to every blog or bogus news release (remember Lotus?) Don't sit there passively and complain to us, we are the hybrid electric community.

Questions are always welcome because it sharpens my arguments. There is something called 'moot court' where lawyers practice against themselves. Questions help me get better, more practiced. But never forget that we need allies and that comes from facing outwards. Let's be friends and not form a circular firing squad. <grins>

BTW, do you know this co-sponsor: Rep Janice D. Schakowsky? Perhaps you might see if she has opposition this year. Perhaps there is a local paper or credible broadcast news department that might be interested in an article about the subject. Send me a PM with contact information for them. Like Lotus, I also have a press kit only mine has the facts and data. <GRINS>

Bob Wilson