Electric and hybrid cars, with little or no engine noise, are lauded for their silence, yet some groups including advocates for the blind say pedestrians may fail to notice them approaching. To address those safety concerns, transportation agencies in the U.S. and Japan may mandate artificial sounds for the vehicles.
“We fought for so long to get rid of that noisy engine sound,” said Tabata, Nissans noise and vibration expert. With electric cars, “we took a completely different approach and listened to composers talk music theory.” [...]

Some cars would just let you ram into a passing object, but not with the new Nissan safety options on board. The car will try to save itself and you by providing warnings and steering the car away from peril in case of an adverse situation.
A car installed with the brake-resistance device would try to deter the driver from changing lanes, for example, if it detected a car zooming up from behind in the motorist’s blind spot, Nissan said.
Motorists can still override the deterrence in an emergency but a test drive in a car fitted with the feature on Wednesday [...]