Electric cars were created especially to help minimise the effects of airborne pollutants which are strangling the current climate crisis. However, electric cars might also be effective in helping another common fatality: car accidents. Relating mainly to road traffic-related fatalities which are the eighth leading cause of death, that number could soon drop with the total adoption of electric cars in the future.
What are the safety exceptions for a quiet electric car?
As cars start to become smarter, they also become quieter, which can cause separate issues related to car accidents. When an electric car is driven at low speeds, such as reversing or parking, electric cars can be barely audible and are more likely to cause fatalities. For example, if you’re reversing and a pedestrian can’t hear your car, they’re more likely to walk into your moving vehicle instead of moving away instinctively when they hear an engine.
A new regulation has been brought into British Law stating that all-electric and hybrid cars must be fitted with a AVAS, (Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System) this is a new safety device that has to be legally fitted in all new models of electric and hybrid cars and vans. The device will automatically generate a sound at low speeds, from when the vehicle starts up to when it hits the speed of around 12mph (20kmph) and when reversing. This is when electric or hybrid cars are most likely to be near pedestrians. At speeds over 12mph, tyres, wind and other noise from the vehicle become loud enough that artificial sound is no longer required.
4 Ways Electric Cars will make driving safer
Although research is limited to the actual effects of electric cars on road safety, the few tests that have been done seem to confirm that electric cars make driving safer in the following ways.
1. More Driving Breaks
One of the aspects of life with an electric car, especially on long journeys, is the multiple extended breaks needed to charge the vehicle. Instead of driving into the petrol station, filling up, and immediately driving away, electric car owners are expected to wait while their battery charges. That extra half an hour to an hour break allows drivers to recuperate and stretch, which in some cases can be the difference between making it to your destination safely and not.
2. Reduce Injury Upon Collision
If you do get in an accident, your rate of injury is 40% lower than for identical petrol-powered vehicles. The reason for this is that electric cars weigh a lot more due to the inclusion of batteries. Research shows that if you’re in a heavier vehicle, you have less force exerted on your body in a crash, which leads to fewer injuries and deaths from serious accidents.
3. More than one motor
Most people are used to driving cars with a single source of power – an internal combustion engine. But when it comes to electric cars, it’s normal to have two, sometimes even four electric motors in the same vehicle.
This opens possibilities that couldn’t be imagined before. For example, when you push your car’s throttle pedal, the vehicle interprets the position of the pedal to decide how much force it needs to accelerate. When this force is applied on a rotating part, like a wheel, it creates torque. The question is, which motors should the torque be allocated to? This is the principle of “torque vectoring” – the possibility to distribute traction or braking to different motors within the vehicle.
Torque vectoring could be used to make vehicles safer. If different amounts of torque are applied to the left and right sides of the vehicle, a turning effect will be produced. This can be used to influence the vehicle’s cornering response, making it safer, especially in critical conditions such as avoiding a crash when taking a corner too fast, or in case of hard swerves to avert an obstacle.
4. Smart Energy Conservation Leads to Fewer Aggressive Manoeuvres
Aggressive drivers tend to rev their engines and change speeds more frequently, leading to a lot of wasted fuel. Since electric cars are concerned with energy conservation (as batteries have a limited amount of charge), they will stick to the speed limit under normal circumstances. Electric vehicles will also save energy by reducing the amount of braking and stop-start driving.
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