‘The Jetsons’ are coming to an electric vehicle near you

27th March 2019

Alex Lynn

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‘The Jetsons’ cartoon, which aired on television in the early 1960s (and again with new episodes in the 1980s) featured a family in the year 2062 riding around in a flying car. While we don’t have flying cars yet, we are soon going to hear similar sounds from the electrified vehicles (EVs) around us.

By Gregg Burke, Texas Instruments

There are three main types of EVs:

A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) uses a combination of electric motors and a standard internal combustion engine.
A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle is a variant of the HEV. It still has a standard internal combustion engine and electric motors, but the internal battery can be recharged by plugging it into an external source of electric power.
A battery electric vehicle is a motorised vehicle that solely uses electric motors for propulsion.

It’s well-known that EVs produce very little engine noise compared to traditional internal combustion engines, thereby posing a risk for the blind, small children, the elderly, runners, cyclists or any pedestrians who need to hear that a vehicle is approaching. One study shows that these quieter EVs are 40% more likely to collide with pedestrians than cars with a regular combustion engine. Another study indicated that a pedestrian may not adequately hear EVs traveling at slow speeds until they are just 1-2 seconds away from impact – often too late to avoid harm.

Several factors contribute to the reason why EVs are quieter: They make no noise when starting up, and they make no appreciable noise taking off from a stop sign or stoplight or when driving in reverse.

To read the full paper, click here.