I nearly got run over by a fucking hybrid car

[Rapidmama]

The bloody bastard things don’t make ANY noise.

Camping this weekend, no cars on site so I wasn’t expecting to see one. Walked out between two lines of tents and the fucking thing was almost on top of me. Stupid woman driving it could barely see over the steering wheel and carried on driving. I jumped back out of the way and banged on the bonnet. She drove for about 10 meters before another camper stopped her and said WTF you nearly ran her over. She was completely non plussed. Any normal car I would have heard coming.

How the hell do blind people cross the road when one of these things could be on top of them ffs?!

Where we live, hybrids and e-cars are getting quite popular as plenty of companies are pushing for them as company cars, offering plenty of incentives. We just got our first hybrid a few weeks ago. It's very quiet in full e-mode, but we rarely use that in town so there usually is normal engine noise (which is not loud either).

You're in greater danger here to be run over by the idiot cyclists, who ride their bikes without light or even a bell (and then get pissy if you don't intuit that they are coming up behind you at 25km/h on a shared path in the dark). Or by the guy on his mobility scooter, which goes faster than any mobility scooter should be able to go. Maybe they should be required to make engine noises as they go along? A nice guttural "wrummmm wrummm" as they hurtle along will do

They are dangerous both to wildlife and domestic animals too.

But how do you safely make an alternate noise? I think I heard that beeping your horn can scare a horse. I know that when I am beeped it makes me jump a mile high.

Always thought they would benefit from clickers or spoky-dokies in the wheels like a kids bike!

Our dogs can hear ours drive up to the house so they do make noise. We also drive it to the (horse) yard and are yet to have a horse spook because they didn't know we were there

It is a Mitsubishi phev though so a big one and prob makes noise moving. It's not loud but def not silent

This is also a concern of mine. I was waiting for a taxi and absolutely shat myself when I turned round and it was just sitting there. I also worry about blind people, animals and children.

Plllleassse no one think beeping a horn is a good idea when approaching a horse!! Cyclists ringing a bell on approaching is fine (not that they all do and fly past without a thought 😡)

I drive an EV and it does make a whooshing sort of noise at low speed.

At the moment EV/hybrid drivers do just have to be really aware of people not looking. And pedestrians (where not visually impaired of course) do just have to be looking around all the time.

Car parks are the worst places for people swanning around oblivious to any vehicle, even if they do have a noisy engine. 🙈

Praying - what about one of the deer warning things that I linked to earlier? I am tempted to fit to my new electric car when it arrives, and I'm sure the horse would hear it - however you as a rider wouldn't - does that make it more dangerous?

I have never heard of a deer warning.... it depends what noise it emits. If it's designed to scare deer away then that prob is not a good idea.

And to be honest as the rider I'd prefer to hear it too.

Trent

Just looked at the link and please no! That sounds like a nightmare! The horse would take off and the rider would have no idea why!!!!

Thanks Praying. It's hard to know what to do really!! As other posters have said, would be better if they just came with an optional noise button for higher speeds (ie so I could have a quiet car on the motorway or A roads, but make it noisy for other driving)

Well as I say... we haven't had a problem with horses not hearing our car. At the yard or around the village area we live in. I work in the equestrian industry and I haven't actually come across anyone yet that has moaned to me about an issue. 🤷‍♀️

I think electric cars and all bikes should have noise makers.

The number of times a bike’s whizzed silently past me on the pavement and it’s been pure luck that I didn’t bump into it is fairly scary.

I agree that hybrids and certain other cars are far too quiet.
They are an accident waiting to happen.
My gip is also these damn motorbility scooters.
My H was hit by one the stupid old fart was going far too fast.
Yet another accident waiting to happen.

I have an electric car and yes, it's pretty much silent on the toad. A benefit in some ways as there is no noise pollution.

I do however drive it carefully and I'm aware of it being quiet. The car who always sits in the middle of the road near school is something I always look out for as it just doesn't move when my car's coming. Luckily it's a quiet road anyway so a quick beep will attract its attention or I've been known to stop and 'shoo' it away so I can continue!

But it's also made me aware of just how many people wander out into streets without paying much attention too. Fortunately I am aware of this and drive with caution, I just wish some pedestrians and cyclists - and other cars for that matter at times - would do the same!

I've drilled it into the kids to look and look again. We've seen a couple of near misses with electric cars.

IIRC new ones will have to make a sound under 50mph or something.

I was walking through the car park at work, on the designated path for pedestrians. I'm 5 foot 7 ish, wearing a hi viz jacket so not hard to see. I could hear an odd noise, which was the transmission of an electric car reversing out. If I hadn't heard it she would have hit me, as I'm sure she didn't look. Fair enough, that's a driver error, but even so I was in the correct place, highly visible etc. What if it had been a child, parent distracted, not hearing the car and being able to stop the child from walking behind it? It's very dangerous.

I ride and it is a little concerning, but I've yet to personally come across one when on a horse. I have had a few incidents with bikes whizzing past with no notice, and they tend to pass quicker because obviously they're not as big if the road's narrow. It's not a pleasant experience, and I do rely on a combination of my hearing and the reaction of the horse (ears flicking back, turning head slightly or lifting head to get a better look at something behind etc) and looking behind every 7-10 strides (not always possible) for cyclists the easiest and safest thing is to call out - not yell - and warn them. Not sure sticking your head out of the window would be very safe though!
These vehicles are still very new, compared to normal cars, and it's going to take adjustment from all sides I think. Drivers need to be aware that people may not hear them, and haven't or can't see them, and pedestrians, horse riders etc need to be aware there's the possibility of a silent car approaching and be more alert.
With teaching road safety, or indeed, traffic training a horse, it's all based around cars that make noise, for example one of my friends horses is 25, no electric cars on the roads when he was traffic trained, so therefore he's fine around normal cars, but I couldn't say how he'd react to a car on stealth mode.
(Love that expression for silent cars!)

I understand why this bothers you on a campsite, but surely crossing a road you would look to see if something's coming, not just walk out?! I'm a cyclist, should I get a noise fitted to my bike, or should I assume pedestrians will not act like pillocks and will cross the road when it's safe to do so rather than just blindly taking a chance? Idiotic.

I'm a cyclist, should I get a noise fitted to my bike, or should I assume pedestrians will not act like pillocks and will cross the road when it's safe to do so rather than just blindly taking a chance?

But for every cyclist who sticks to the rules there’s another one who rides like a pillock, going on pavements & through red lights. They’re the ones who need noises fitted.

I can't believe there's been no rules brought in that they have to make a noise. There will be more accidents until eventually they do something. We also live in a rural area and although we try to walk the dog as close to the side as we can there are high hedges, bends and wide verges that are impossible to walk on. If a car came that we couldn't hear, we could easily be run over because we just can't see what's coming sometimes.

This was my initial reaction when I first saw a tesla (apart from it being a thing of beauty)
My dd2 is deaf, but wears hearing aids that amplify sound but you can't amplify no sound.
Apparently they will be adding artificial sound in the future & of course sensor technology use is growing with automatic breaking which is still an optional paid for extra in most cars rather than being a requirement of the manufacturers at the moment.

Yes, got a real shock as an electric very large car came up behind me as I entered a courtyard.

We have a Tesla and drive around London. We are super careful but people do just walk out in front of us usually wearing headphones and looking at their phones. We have never hit anyone yet and hope we never do. If they do add a sound emitting app we will use it.