I wonder how the lack of audible feedback is going to affect driving speeds. Let’s face it, when you stomp on the accelerator pedal of a car with an ICE, you get noticeable audible and tactile feedback on the abuse you are causing to that drivetrain. It may be a large part of the method by which people unconsciously measure their driving speed and ritual.
By comparison, EV’s have enormous low-speed accelleration potential, and an almost total lack of sensory feedback. Will it make recklessly oblivious drivers even more reckless? Yes, I’m talking about the 17 year old females watching their iPhones while tailgating and plowing thru town at high speed, not necessarily “spirited” driving enthusiasts, although the same question could be applied to both.
In my experience you do find yourself going faster than you thought sometimes. Not so much around town, as on the highway. The cars are optimized to also reduce wind noise (which is what the funny LEAF headlights are for).
Realistically, not a huge problem IMO...as on the highway you match the speeds of those around you. In town, I think we use more visual speed cues than engine/wind noise.
The sensory feedback is through **acceleration**, and that is clearer than in an ICE car. If I am doing a steady acceleration in an ICE car, like an onramp, I actually hear the engine noise rise and fall, and the acceleration lurch up and down as the transmission shifts. In the EV, I just feel the steady acceleration...no crazy lurches or distracting noises. This is how our brain is supposed to get speed feedback...our onboard accelerometers. The lurches in the ICE car actually confuse that, and of course contribute to motion sickness....my younger kid gets a LOT less sick in the EV.
I DO find myself doing maneuvers in traffic that rely on high low-speed acceleration. As in, I am trying to change lanes and there is a guy a little too close behind me.....I will just squirt on a bit of speed in a fraction of second and then look and go. In an ICE engine, the same maneuver would seriously rev the engine, might lurch the car back and forth through a tranny shift, make a surge of noise, and take a throttle and shift lag time longer to complete. In other words, the ridiculous kludge that is the ICE drivetrain leads me to drive like a granny. The EV gives me a mind-machine fusion that I have never felt in an ICE car that sets me free. I don't think that's decreasing safety...but what do I know?
The quiet interior has advantages. Solo commuting my wife listens to books on tape or podcasts and can hear them and enjoy them more. AS a family, we can talk to each other in 'inside voices' and have a conversation, rather than a series of yelled and repeated Q and As.
If all ICE cars came with a guy that slapped your face at certain speeds (like a transmission shift) and yelled at you continuously at high speeds (like engine noise), I'm sure many drivers would go on about how that guy is central to their driving enjoyment, getting cars with bigger hands to slap with and louder yelling voices...but I think that whole line of thinking is pretty absurd. Bottom line...most ICE cars have chitty driving dynamics, make your passengers motion sick, train people to drive like grannies, get everyone all keyed up to yell at other drivers or their passengers and distract you from your task...safe driving.
My 17 yo female driver (an EV native...its what she is learning on) seems to be doing aok.
