“Meep! Meep!” Quiet electric and hybrid cars will be forced to do something like that to alert pedestrians they’re coming under a new act passed by Congress.

The Pedestrian Safety Act will require the Transportation Department to figure out what the minimum level of noise a car needs to make in order to alert people walking around that a car is near.

Automakers will be given broad leeway as to what the noise itself will be. Currently GM’s car chirps at low speeds, and the Nissan Leaf sounds like alien spaceship phasers.

The act was pushed by the National Federation of the Blind.

House passes ‘Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2010’ [Tire Business]

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