Except that's not true, it does make sense. Electric vehicles are apparently 40% more likely to hit a pedestrian than a conventionally engined car.

There's been research going on for at least the last 10 years into both the risk and effective sounds that don't simply prove annoying (like a beep would), or lose directionality.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/06/new-law-...

https://www.rnib.org.uk/rnibconnect/silent-deadly-electric-h...

Annoyingly that 40% figure is almost impossible to find, it's from a survey done by a Guide Dogs charity in the UK but their own page on it [0] now just refers to it and doesn't link to the original report.

[0]: https://www.guidedogs.org.uk/how-you-can-help/campaigning/sa...

So it is. Can find lots of references to the report, even from gov.uk, but no actual links to it.

I was being followed on my bicycle by an almost entirely silent hybrid driving on electric power. It really is quite freaky when you know it's behind you and can see it in your peripheral vision when you turn your head but can't hear it.

It makes plenty of sense, at low speeds wind and tire noise aren't loud enough by themselves.

My Volt makes a somewhat annoying tone below 25 mph, but I'm glad it does because almost immediately after getting it I noticed an increase in close-calls in parking lots when pedestrians would walk into the path of the car.

The noise isn't too car-like so it's less effective than the engine noise people are used too, but it's also probably more effective than nothing.

I walk my dogs in the morning and for a while I had trouble with EVs and hybrids but now I am used to it and haven't had any problems. It's just learning.

The lower the sound level, the closer the car needs to be for you to hear it.

Except if you get hit and seriously injured or die, you will have decreased opportunities to continue your "learning"

One thing I have learned is that relying on hearing is very dangerous. You may have a car coming in your direction and if you don't look the other way you may not notice a car coming from the other direction.

Blind and visually impaired people still sometimes need to cross roads.

To which a seeing-eye dog is often employed.

Given that there is increased lack of "looking while you walk" from many people (due in part to the use of smartphones) noise from vehicles becomes a crucial indicator.

Do they really rely on car noise? Based on wind and other noise you can't be sure that you are hearing all cars.

It depends on the situation, of course, and in many cases for situational awareness, you can imagine folks want to have as much information/affordances available to them as possible. Car/traffic noise is one bit of situational awareness that is often used. Whether or not there are other affordances, losing any affordance can be a safety problem/hazard.