July 13, 2022 – The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has scrapped a 2019 proposal that would let automakers give drivers a choice between several different low-speed sounds.
NHTSA takes low-speed EV noises quite seriously and demands that the noises not resemble anything that could be misconstrued as a natural sound. Vehicles capable of operating silently are required by law to emit sounds at speeds up to 19 mph to alert pedestrians to the vehicle’s presence.
“The great majority of the comments on the [Notice of Proposed Rulemaking] including those submitted by organizations and people who are blind or who have low vision, did not favor the proposal to allow [hybrid and electric vehicles] to have an unlimited number of different pedestrian alert sounds,” NHTSA wrote in its final ruling. “To the contrary, most of those comments were in favor of more uniformity, rather than less.”