Nissan has come out with the first ever all electric vehicle, they named it the Nissan Leaf. It's a front motor, Front Wheel Drive (FWD) like most japanese vehicles but what different is its fuel... Well it doesn't have any you just put it to charge at home and your ready for the next day to go to work or do your daily deeds. The fact that Nissan made a mass production car like the Leaf to me isn't necessarily, the car goes zero to sixty in 12 seconds faster then some minivans and suvs but the fact that you can't hear anything come out of the car. You should be able to hear cars, its a necessity not just a pleasure. To me hearing a car rev up to 7000 RPM is the sweetest tune well that is if the car sounds nice but in a car like the Leaf you can't even hear the car's engine to see if its on or no. This to me is dangerous, when you hear a car coming down a road you mainly hear its exhaust system.
This is when new technology comes into play. Nissan created VSP or Vehicle Sound for Pedestrians. What they did is they create a sort of artificial sound so when the vehicle travels at low speeds throughout neighborhoods people can hear the car coming. The noise is loud enough for pedestrians to hear but not load enough to get into the car and distract the driver. Now the driver can switch off the VSP but it automatically switches back on the next ignition cycle or the next time the person starts the car. Do you find it annoying that soon cars won't be making the sounds of the exhaust but soon enough will be making loud annoying beeping sounds down your neighborhoods ?
Citations
Magazine: Motor Trend. Lyon, Peter. (2010, August/October). The electric future is here. 62(10), 76-80.
Website: Nissan Leaf. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 28, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf#Safety
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