Comment Re:Why trust your ears? Unless you're blind that i (Score 0) 620
Besides, lastly but not least... unless the car is accelerating the biggest noise is the road noise (pavement vs vulcanized rubber). Last I checked, electric cars don't solve this problem. If you're relying on Engine noise to determine if a car is coming, you're already fairly screwed.
Apparently not. From the study linked to from the article:
A variety of crash factors were examined to determine the relative incidence rates of HEVs versus ICE vehicles in a range of crash scenarios. For one group of scenarios, those in which a vehicle is slowing or stopping, backing up, or entering or leaving a parking space, a statistically significant effect was found due to engine type. The HEV was two times more likely to be involved in a pedestrian crash in these situations than was an ICE vehicle.
So a car without engine noise is in some situations twice as likely to hit somebody. Therefore relying on your ears is somewhat effective when dealing with normal cars in certain situations.