Elon Musk Lobbies Dept. of Transportation on Noisy EV Pedestrian Alerts

Ronnie Schreiber
by Ronnie Schreiber

Much as Tesla head Elon Musk likes to distance his company from how the Detroit automakers operate, the fact is that the EV startup is inextricably tied to the Motor City. The Tesla display at the 2013 NAIAS is the only appearance Tesla’s cars will make at any North American auto shows this year.

Many of Tesla’s key personnel, including head designer Franz von Holzhausen, formerly worked for the Big 3. In addition, Musk was in Detroit for the NAIAS media preview. As a matter of fact, one of the times that I visited the Tesla stand during the preview he was giving a delegation of about a half dozen suits from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation a cook’s tour of the falcon-winged Model X crossover prototype. Now I’m not naive and it’s not been unusual these last few years to see employees of executive branch agencies at the Detroit show, but for the life of me I can’t see any governmental reason why those federal employees need to be in attendance at what is billed as a media event. Does anyone really think they were doing anything other than taking a junket to see the nice cars and the beautiful women, getting V.I.P. treatment while they were at it?

While the suits from the DOT may not have had a governmental justification to be taking in the media shindig, Mr. Musk is trying to run a business and a good businessperson will seize any opportunity to benefit his business. In October, Tesla renegotiated the terms of a $465 million Department of Energy loan. The feds eased the loan’s terms to make sure that Tesla didn’t violate key financial benchmarks. Tesla subsequently raised $193 million in a secondary stock offering, which eased cash flow concerns for the startup. In that context one can well understand Musk being solicitous of his visitors from Washington D.C. He also took advantage of the situation to lobby them against recent proposals to require EVs, which are whisper quiet, to be equipped with some kind of audible alert to warn pedestrians. The DOT guys were a bit jocular, but Musk was serious. He doesn’t want Teslas to make noise. Frankly I was surprised how passionate he was about the topic and why he chose that issue, of all things, to raise.

Musk’s complaints were taken in good humor. In general there was a spirit of bonhomie between the bureaucrats and the businessman. Having expended political and real capital to support Tesla, I’m sure that the administration, including the gentleman from the DOT visiting the NAIAS, want the company to succeed, though they will, in all likelihood, force Musk to make his cars noisier.

Ronnie Schreiber
Ronnie Schreiber

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, the original 3D car site.

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  • Etrnlrvr Etrnlrvr on Jan 19, 2013

    I think some people have not really considered the real practical experience of being around EV's. I don't mean for the blind or anything either I mean just everyday normal people. I had a job for 6 months driving and being around both full and part time EV's for one of the big 3. Before this experience I thought the idea of a noise making requirement was silly. It seemed like common sense really would be enough. I've pretty much come full circle on the issue though. Even though I and the other 50-70 people I used to work with were used to being around these vehicles there was one inescapable truth to be had. People walk in front of you when you are driving them and if you are walking you will eventually walk out in front of one not realizing it was there. This was in a large parking lot at parking lot speeds but I had it happen out in the 'civilian' world too. It just doesn't matter how careful or alert you think you are being. Our brain just assumes that cars make noise at a near brain stem level that is really hard to overcome. You would think this wouldn't be the case but it is. When you glance behind you and no one is there and 5 seconds later you want to change direction and you don't hear a single solitary thing you just do it not expecting anything to be there. That's when the damn EV sneaks up on you. Or one moves out of a spot with no tell tale engine start or wafting exhaust vapor. I can't tell you how many times I just heard the slight crunching of debris under a tire just before I was about to turn around or change direction in a parking lot and step into the path of one. This never got better in the 6 months I was there whether I was a pedestrian or a driver. The real danger in EV's is in parking lots and strip malls and quiet residential streets where people just will not process the environment in a way that will let them notice these things when your brain is just assuming no vehicle is around from the lack of sound. Several people got knocked to the ground due to this and there were pretty much daily near misses. So as much as I generally hate legislation and the whole process of what sound and how they will implement it makes me nearly ill to think about I do think it's necessary.

  • Power6 Power6 on Jan 20, 2013

    I miss my SRT-4 it used to send the pedestrians running for the curbs. They would literally run out of the way in a parking garage hahahaha.

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