Sorry, I have no Japanese skills or contacts. With Mandarin or Cantonese, I might have been able to find someone.
So, I resorted to babelfish. Better than nothing, I hope. ================== < The echo car > quiet the danger of lying hidden. September 23rd 9:11 transmission everyday the newspaper The hybrid car which designates wet sanding with gasoline the motor as power (HV) and the electric automobile which it runs with the electric motor (EV) and the like the environmental corresponding car (the echo car). The country supports purchase with the tax reduction and subsidy and advances spread. Quiet there is no engine sound but feature, the visual handicapped person who judges sign with sound appeals the insecurity of accident. The national traffic ministry last month, the independent administrative corporate body traffic safe environmental laboratory (Tokyo Chofu city) with participated in the experience meeting which hears the travelling sound of the echo car which was opened in for the intellectual person and the visual handicapped person and the reporting authorized personnel. * In the experience meeting, Toyota [puriusu], HONDA [insaito] and NISSAN [aruteima] of HV, EV Mitsubishi [aimibu] (1-MiEV), it compares with the gasoline engine car. When I open the eye at the point in time when the car which gets near from the rear can be recognized and get near to somewhere it verified whether you understand. It could react with speed per hour 25 kilometer, relatively with the rear. The body is moved aside to the shoulder, may be also a room which avoids the car. But, low-speed time below speed per hour 10 kilometer drastic change. Sound is small, is not audible. Advancing to the front from the position where I stand at the point in time when the eye was opened the car which reaches, already passes. In residential town and the like which the car runs at low speed, you felt that can be also a scene which the senior citizen and the child make [hiyari] sufficiently. Next, it verified by the car which puts out sound such as chime and melody and the false engine sound where each company advances research. As for volume same as gasoline powered vehicle. The chime was easy to understand, but if it stands on side of the operator, it comes to the point of continuing to hear systematic sound and it probably is unpleasant. It has the necessity to search the sound where it can accept each other. Arrival sound of the portable telephone and sound of the traffic light, there is also a departure bell of the station in the town. You cannot distinguish,. Yasunaga Telecom child of all blindness which comes to experience meeting (60) as for = Tokyo Suginami Ku = deciding that with the sound which each company standardization is easy to hear, you do not use other than the car. Life catches, that order was acquired. * Experience meeting, the diplomatic relations ministry gathering the intellectual person in the July this year, was done it started as part of examination of the measure research committee regarding the quiet sound characteristic of the hybrid car and the like. Still there is no report of the accident where being too quiet occurred with cause officially, but you say that the voice which demands consideration over 60 cases is moved aside to manufacturer each company in 3 - 4 years. In the questionnaire where Toyota in 07 designates the HV owner et. al as the object, operator side 7 tenths the super some pronunciation device it has needed. Alone, the quiet of HV of the member, with great professor Nakano Yasushi will Keio which researches the safety of the pedestrian (handicapped person psychology) but in the experience meeting the car passed the side of the person just, when, verification of the car such as the crossover and intersection of the alleyway is necessary very, it points out that accident is supposed. Also the Toyota person in charge said whether it is good to support the driver where careful driving is required, with the system of some vehicle examination is continued. The diplomatic relations ministry next month, opinion collection (public comment) is the schedule which is begun from generality. <Emi Aoki> ========= OK, babelfish has limitations, but I think I get the gist of it. (I would still welcome a better translation in case I missed something.) In a country (Japan) where hybrids and EVs have been commerically available for over a decade, there are no reported collisions where the vehicle being too quiet was listed as a cause. They acknowledge that the use of a continuous noisemaker will be irritating for the vehicle operator. I do like that they acknowledge that aiding the vehicle operator where careful driving is required is an option. I'm all in favour of a low volume courtesy noisemaker that is under the manual control of the vehicle operator. Something that can alert nearby pedestrians without being obnoxious like a regular car horn. Once we have the protection of the visually impaired resolved, do you think we'll have to find a way to protect pedestrians with headphones cranked up and just oblivious from EVs and HEVs? I'm completely lost as to why different manufacturer's would have different sound signatures. Why wouldn't one sound (for my manually controlled courtesy noisemaker) for all quiet vehicles be sufficient? Including bicycles up to and including human-powered quadricycles. Darryl robert and benita rabello wrote: > Darryl McMahon wrote: > >> AAARRGH!! NO, NO, NO, NO!! >> >> Let's understand the real problem and fix that! >> >> The problem is NOT that electric and hybrid cars are too quiet. >> >> The problem is that other vehicles in our urban settings are too noisy. >> >> > > I hear, you, Darryl. However, I just got into a discussion in > another forum about this very topic, and someone referenced THIS article: > > http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20090923-00000007-maiall-bus_all > > It's in Japanese, so I can't read it, but I was hoping Keith or some > other list member might comment on its contents. > > robert luis rabello > "The Edge of Justice" > "The Long Journey" > New Adventure for Your Mind > http://www.newadventure.ca > > Ranger Supercharger Project Page > http://www.members.shaw.ca/rabello/ > > > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > > > -- Darryl McMahon The Emperor's New Hydrogen Economy (in trade paperback and eBook) http://www.econogics.com/TENHE/ Latest review of The Emperor's New Hydrogen Economy in Greenlife Magazine http://www.econogics.com/TENHE/tenheGLspring2009.htm _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
