The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) is currently investigating whether early electric cars and hybrids should be equipped with pedestrian alert sound for safety. While new EVs are required to have the safety feature, that's not the case with older versions.
NHTSA may decide that EVs from as early as 1997 would be considered to have a safety defect if they don't emit pedestrian alert sounds. If it does move forward with changing the rules, and the cars are considered to have a safety defect, some sort of action will need to be taken.
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