My understanding is that under current law a full-time pedestrian warning is on whenever the vehicle is travelling below 25 MPH. Therefore, no button to push.

KNS

 

Not a law just yet - it's been pushed back to 2018: http://insideevs.com/nhtsa-pushes-back-noise-requirement-electric-cars-2018/

The noise is easy to hear if you have windows down and you are sitting in your garage. Windows up and moving I coulnd't really hear it at all. That being said, it takes 5 seconds to disable the noise by pulling a fuse from the rear fuseblock. Only other thing you lose by pulling it is the "beep" that you get when you plug in to charge.

Personally - you could have a blinking neon sign, and a circus band playing right on your front bumper, and people would still be oblivious to the car sometimes. As much as it sucks to admit, there are people out there where no amount of help/warning/noise is going to prevent them from walking in traffic or being oblivious about the world around them. IMO I'm tired of seeing the world bieng wrapped in safety foam due to the actions of a few stupid or selfish individuals. (Could be someone behind the wheel, or on foot)

 

It was removed as a driver activated option.
You have no choice when it is on*, always at low speeds.
If you need to signal to a pedestrian, you only have the full horn.

*unless say, a fuse were to blow without your knowledge...

 

Thanks for the info. Think GM should have left it as it was . Nice feature and also they eliminated the turn signal indicator on the out side mirrors. Can't under stand why GM has to remove items and then add stupid ones. Later RJD

 

The Gen 2 warning is a low growl which you can easily hear in a closed garage when in gear.

 

To me it sounds like a loud seashell sound...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-l3VH3EZb0

 

Nailed It!

 

Ok why does my window sticker state car equip with pedestrian safety signal.? Where is it and what activates it? Also when you go on line build the car and look at standard features of car it's listed there also? Later RJD

 

Online Order / Reference Guide


If you go online at the link above and read the GM order reference guide for the 2017 Volt it states specifically, "Pedestrian Safety Signal, automatic audible signal during low speed driving" so I'm not understanding the confusion...

 

Well that was the question. I never hear it so basically it's not there to warn folks. Still GM should have keep the original concept. Typical GM give and take Stupid. I have found this to be true on other products of theirs and have written GM and goes on deaf ears. Why give it one time and then delete

 

It's not there to warn people inside the car, nor warn people half a block away. It's there to warn people a couple of cars away in a parking lot that yours is on and liable to move any moment, so they should be extra careful walking past your ass end, or they should walk on the side of the traffic lane instead of the middle because you're ten feet behind them. It basically just pretends to be about as much noise as the idling engine that people expect around slowly-moving cars.

 

Does anyone know where the device, I'm assuming a speaker, is located under the hood? Could you unplug it or would that cause the CEL light to go on? I wouldn't want to remove a fuse. Silent driving is one of the things I like best about my Gen 1 Volt. I feel I can safely watch pedestrians when approaching them. I haven't had a problem in the 4 years of driving a Volt. This is one minor item on the "Con" list of getting a Gen2. I'm still on the fence mainly due to the Shift to Park posts.

 

This noise is next to impossible to hear from inside the Volt, so why bother? Furthermore, although IANAL, I'd be concerned about liability issues should you actively disable this feature and then somebody gets hurt. For instance, suppose a kid dashes into traffic too quickly for you to stop, so the kid is hurt or even killed. Once the determination is made that you actively disabled this feature, the lawyers would be all over you -- and worse, of course, a kid would be in the hospital (or in the ground). Whether the noise would have prevented the injury/death is an open question, and as this scenario is hypothetical you could argue either way, but from a legal perspective, I suspect you'd be in hot water.

 

Ha, sounds like sound effects from the original Star trek

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Ha, sounds like sound effects from the original Star trek

Yes! That is exactly what came to mind for me too: the old "abandoned planet" sound!

 

Good point. I too had thought of liability. I could live with it as it is.

 

A lot of people spend a lot of time trying to disable safety features like this one or daytime running lights. I don't really understand that. They are there for a reason. Nobody is going to be impressed by your car being slightly quieter or darker.