Safety Aspects of Electric Vehicles: Acoustic Measures, Experimental Analysis, and Group Discussions

Abstract

The first prototypes and serial models of electric cars already drive almost soundless, especially at lower speed. While beneficial for residents noiseless traffic could be a danger for blind and visually impaired persons. This study analyzes people’s sound perceptions and sense of safety in traffic situations with electric cars and aims to discover the risk potential of electrified road traffic. Integrated into the study were five pairs of vehicles, each consisting of a BEV (battery electric vehicle) and one or two identical vehicles with ICE (internal combustion engine). The study covers acoustic measures of the vehicles, which were conducted on a vehicle measurement site on the one hand and at the test location on the other hand. Sound perceptions and safety estimations were measured via experimental design and questionnaires (n = 260). Moreover, the researchers conducted deepening group discussions with blind and visually impaired people (n = 28). Main result of this study is that there exist problems of perception for quiet electric vehicles even for higher speeds of 30 km/h. Additionally, the analysis shows that modern petrol cars are almost as quiet as electric cars. This indicates that a broad solution for quiet cars in general is necessary.