Nissan provides safe haven for Sci-Fi geeks...

Stay with me here... When Nissan was still in the development stages of the all electric vehicle we now know as the coming LEAF, safety was one of the big concerns, particularly pedestrian safety. It seem one of the issues that the folks at toyota continue to deal with is the fact that the prius emits no sound when traveling under 5 mph and there a number of reported injuries from folks that stepped out in front of one and were hit! To ensure folks know when a LEAF is near Nissan went to pretty extreme lengths to not only give thier electric vehicle sound but bitchen sound! Toshiyuki Tabata is the 'noise and vibration' specialist at Nissan he wanted the LEAF to not only make a unique and signature sound but it also had to be way cool. “We decided that if we’re going to do this, if we have to make sound, then we’re going to make it beautiful and futuristic,” Tabata said. The company consulted Japanese composers of film scores. What Tabata and his six-member team came up with is a high- pitched sound reminiscent of the flying cars in “Blade Runner,” the 1982 film directed by  Ridley Scott portraying his dystopian vision of 2019.
True story, I even found it on the Bloomberg site, you can read it all here. YES, I read Bloomberg..... shut up!
In a related story, toyota announced that they are looking into providing sound for the prius. They are experimenting with playing a taped loop of Ed Begly Jr. loudly saying "get out of my way, I'm better than you" !!!

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