In a World of Digital Silence, What Should Anything Sound Like?

Electric cars are quiet. Maybe too quiet. The problem, as some public health groups warn, is that electric cars dramatically increase the risk of accidents with pedestrians. The absence of sound creates danger, because we expect to be able to hear a car coming. Now that legislation spearheaded by groups advocating for the blind and visually impaired is starting to require electric vehicles to emit “an artificial engine noise,” the new challenge is what this sound should be. Do car makers just co...