Chris Edwards

00:41

S1 (Speaker 1)

On Vision Australia Radio, this is Vision Extra with Peter Greco.

S2

Electric Vehicles: not only are they coming, they are already here, but to how safe are they? Particularly for people with blind or low vision. Let's chat about it with Chris Edwards, who heads up by government relations and advocacy at Vision Australia. Chris, great to catch up again. 

S3

It's terrific to be here. Peter It's always a lovely experience on your show. 

S2

You're very kind now. You've had a lovely experience going to Canberra. 

S3

Yeah, so last week we were in the Parliament with Minister Shorten. Minister Rushworth and Minister Brown or Assistant Minister Brown, who's the Minister for Transport, to launch the release of the Regulatory Impact Statement, which is effectively the consultation for electric vehicles to create a minimum noise level for them. So it was a very exciting time for us and it was and there was a lot of enthusiasm by the politicians as well, which was really nice to to be involved in. And I think that it's great to see that something that we've been lobbying very hard with government since 2018, you know, get to this point. 

It's a very exciting time for us. Because, I mean, so it's something the other day that said by 2050, which, you know, isn't that far away, really 90% of the vehicles on the road are going to be electric vehicles. So, I mean, obviously, we want to preempt any issues that might happen and hence the sort of campaigns starting now or starting five years ago.

Yeah. And I think that that's one of the really important messages that we need to ensure that our government understand that the longer any delays happened before they can introduce a design rule that makes these minimum noise levels mandatory, it's leaving more cars on the road that effectively silent killers.

S2

So let's kind of go back to the beginning. Is an electric vehicle created with any sort of sound emitting? I'm thinking because none of them made in Australia, are they?

S3

No. All cars now are unfortunately made overseas.

S2

So are they made with any sound emitting devices?

S3

Well, yes or no. So in a number of the markets, so Europe, the UK, America, China, Japan, Korea and some other countries, there's a design rule when manufacturers build cars or import cars into those countries, they meet a minimum standard around the introduction of noise emission for those cars. The system is called an acoustic vehicle alerting system. AVAAZ. And what that means is that when cars are travelling at slow speeds, they have to admit an artificial sound so that people can hear them. 

You know, I'm sure that many of us that are listening have been in a car park or been walking down the street. And we're very surprised to find an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle right next to us and simply just could not hear it. And and so one of the challenges is or the main challenge for is when they're travelling at very low speeds, they admit almost no sound when they start travelling at a faster speed. So, you know, above 20, 25km an hour, there's enough tyre noise and enough engine noise to be able to hear them a bit better. So the real danger is when they're travelling at low speeds. 

You know, I've had a number of times myself where, you know, I've been waiting for a car to pull up as a as an Uber, or a taxi. And, you know, it pulls up and I didn't even know that it was there. And so I think that that's a huge danger for people who are blind and low vision, but also for the rest of the community that are actually navigating car parks and those sorts of things that rely on hearing that sound to be able to feel safe.

04:53

S2

Well, that's the thing, isn't it, Chris? I mean, obviously, you know, you and I with Vision impairment representing Vision Australia, etcetera. But it goes broader than that, doesn't it? I mean, I guess that's one of the things that you were trying to get through to the politicians. It's not just people blind have low vision that are impacted by this or potentially impacted by this.

S3

Yeah, it is absolutely a community issue. You know, if you can't hear a car, even if you've got perfect sight when you're walking down a footpath and it might be a high fence, you know, in a house, you know, these days, the only way that you can realise that a car's backing out is because you can hear it. And without being able to hear it, you know, the car can be devastating for someone who's blind or low vision, but be almost equally as devastating when if the driver doesn't see you and starts reversing out and you don't hear that the car is actually just about to do that. It's a real problem for everybody in the community.

S2

And when we think about these sort of things, if you want to take it to the nth degree, you only need to have 1 or 2 close shaves, if you pardon the expression, and then all of a sudden your confidence is dented. And actually I might not go out today. I might not go out on my own today. And you've got these other things that are kind of impacted with something like that. An incident like that can have, you know, long term ramifications on people's confidence and dare I say it, even on people's mental health and their feeling of independence, their feeling of safety.

S3

Oh, absolutely. Our research absolutely confirmed that the introduction of these cars and the increased prevalence of these silent cars within the community is definitely impacting on the confidence and independence of people to be able to walk around their community. And, you know, our research said, you know, 1 in 3 people have been hit by or had a near miss, you know, with one of these silent vehicles.

S2

And I notice that particularly over the last few months, you know, road deaths in particular all around Australia seem to be up on other years. And I'm not saying it's electric vehicles, but the the importance of right safety has never been more evident, both the monetary cost, if you like, but the physical cost and the cost on families, et cetera, can't be underestimated. Chris, what happens from here then? Sounds like you got a good hearing from the politicians. What happens from here?

S3

Yeah. So what what's happened now is, though, this regulatory impact statement, so this consultation has been released. Anybody can provide comment back to government till around the end of May and respond to that. The easiest place to find some information about this is probably go to Vision Australia -dot-org-slash electric cars... and that provides information on how you could make a submission directly. 

But even if you don't have the energy or the will to make a submission directly to government, you can actually put a comment through that page that we will collate and put as part of the Vision Australia submission to demonstrate, you know, I suppose the the will and the feelings of our listeners and the people who are blind and low vision.

S2

So people might think, you know, I'll get around to it, but I guess if they can make a noise now, pardon the pun, they can make a noise now. And politicians kind of get the idea that this is something that is very, very important to us all.

S3

It is really critical that, you know, we use this opportunity for... in this consultation. This is a one-off opportunity. I think that if we're not successful on this occasion to get this design rule changed, it will be some time before that we'll have another opportunity. So the more people that can get on to that web page, Vision Australia-dot-org forward slash electric cars - and look at that to make a submission, yeah the better off and more chance we'll have in actually changing these design rules and making all vehicles safer for people across Australia.

S2

[indistinct] Chris, we'll repeat that before we wrap up. What about to internationally, then other business organisations, rather peak bodies, are they making similar sort of advances to their governments as well?

S2

Well, I think that Australia unfortunately is playing a bit of catch-up here. So you know, some of the the key markets for vehicles in the world, you know, as I said earlier, like the UK and Europe and America and China and Korea have actually already mandated the standard for a design rule to to to ensure that they have AVs. And so, you know, we think that whilst it's a catch up from a regulatory point of view, you know, we we think that there's a real opportunity also for manufacturers not to wait for government to mandate this. There's no reason if they're producing cars for these other markets with this system within it, that they can't just simply bring the same system into Australia.

10:06

S2

It seems common sense, doesn't it? Often these things sort of seem, you know, no-brainers and you kind of wonder why it sort of has to take a bit of a public advocacy campaign to get it happening. But I guess that's the way it is. So we've got to well, not put up with it. We've got to sort of run with it and and hopefully make make some positive changes. So, you know, from now so after May when this period runs out. What happens from there? Did you know about that?

S3

Well, obviously the government will review the feedback from in the regulatory impact statement. And then from there, there's a process to then turn it into a design rule. Yeah, I'm very confident we have got the will of the federal government to actually make this reality. You know, but but without a clear say from everybody, you know, that will put it at some risk. So it's really, really important that, you know, Vision Australia makes a strong submission, but also that, you know, other people and other organisations also support this initiative to be able to, you know, do what it does to, to turn it into a design rule. 

What we do know is that it's not a quick process. We'd like it to be quicker. And so that's why we're also pushing the government to say that, you know, it's really important that you don't dilly-dally on this issue in your consideration, post this consultation and that you implement it as quick as possible to avoid more cars on the road. Not having this feature and being and creating danger. The longer we leave it, the more cars that will not, not be compliant.

Because the issue is that, you know, electric vehicles are being sold, you know, so quickly now over a period of time, aren't they? I mean, you know, there's literally thousands being sold every month. So this problem is going to grow rather than, you know, it's not something that's in the far distant future.

S2

No, it's an exponential growth curve at the moment that, you know, the longer we leave it, by far, the more cars that will happen. They'll keep just doubling and doubling and doubling the number of passenger cars on the road.

S3

And particularly with the push on, you know, electric vehicles and the friendliness to the environment that they bring. That's a message that has to be countered with at least making some noise that they make when they're travelling. Chris, give us that website again and we'll put that up on our Facebook page and circulate on various email lists because this is a well, as I said, almost a once in a lifetime opportunity to kind of have your say and hopefully before the end of May really get your message across and the politicians take it on and act upon it in parliament as well.

Yeah. So to get to find more information about it and to to help make a submission that whether it's within Vision Australia - or directly it's Vision Australia-dot-org-slash-electric cars.

S2

That's pretty straightforward. Chris. Always great to catch you up. Keep up the great work and I'm sure it won't be too long before we speak again. It'd be good to catch up with you down the track with this maybe in a few months to see how the response is and what comes from it.

S3

Absolutely. We'd love to come back, Peter.

13:22

S2

Chris Edwards there. He heads up a government relations and advocacy at Vision Australia. That is it for the program. If you've missed some of it, if you'd like to hear it again, you can search for an extra on the iTunes store on Spotify or your favorite podcast service.