When a Toyota Prius or other hybrid car are running on their electric motors, they are all but silent and can sneak up on people in parking lots. The silent cars are also difficult for blind people to detect.

Two Stanford University graduate students have addressed that problem by creating a small speaker system that can be installed in hybrid vehicles, making them more detectable. Hybrid cars typically run on their electric motors until they reach 25 miles per hour.

Everett Meyer, a medical student, and engineering graduate student Bryan Bai formed a company, Enhanced Vehicle Acoustics, and developed a prototype of a speaker system for hybrid or electric cars. The two met during last year's Summer Institute for Entrepreneurship at the Graduate School of Business.

"The inspiration is the coolness factor," Meyer told the Stanford News Service. "The idea that there's a problem out there and you can do something about it."

The two plan to market their work and are hopeful that owners of hybrid cars will think the speaker system is a good idea.

"People who drive Priuses are generally pretty conscientious and aware, so it seems like a good beginning market," Meyer said.

Their device, called PANDA (Pedestrian Awareness Noise-emitting Device and Application) is about 5 decibels quieter than a normal combustion engine from the front and 10 to 20 decibels quieter from the back. The sound comes from small speakers mounted to the car's front wheel wells and under the rear bumper.
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