Its complete nonsense. A lot of modern ICE cars are virtually silent at idle - should those have an artificial noise too?
Cars are found on roads and in car parks therefore both pedestrians and drivers need to be aware of each other at low speeds. The amount of times I've seen pedestrians step out into the road with earphones in staring at a phone ..... it wouldn't matter if you were driving a electric or diesel car they wouldn't hear you.
I suppose the people to ask would be the blind, but again my instinct tells me they would have heightened awareness in situations where cars are about and the would hear the wheels crunching etc. However I concede that a "pedestrian awareness" horn like the Volt would be useful in situations like that as it would be an acknowledgement that you had seen them without the need to startle.
I think EV and Hybrids are an ideal chance to reduce noise pollution .......lets not screw up the opportunity because pedestrians have abdicated responsibility for paying attention.
