Examining the Impact of 'Quiet' Vehicles on the Performance of Orientation and Mobility Tasks by Pedestrians Who Are Blind

Participants who are blind discriminated vehicle paths and made crossing decisions for hybrid vehicles with and without artificial sounds added. Several artificial sounds matched the performance of tasks observed with vehicles with internal combustion engines. These data, with previous vehicle-detection results, indicate that selecting artificial sounds for "quiet" vehicles based only on detection data is problematic. (Contains 4 tables and 6 figures.)