Device allows electric vehicles to stimulate plant growth

The HY Project aims to make electric vehicles safer for pedestrians while also aiding the environment

Spotted: Engineers at The Electric Factory and Toyota Uruguay founded a project aiming to make electric vehicles safer for pedestrians while aiding the environment at the same time. The HY Project involves a device that attaches to an electric vehicle and emits a specific sound frequency, which stimulates plant growth and can be heard by nearby pedestrians. 

With the number of electric and hybrid vehicles in use on the rise, it has become clear that despite their environmental advantages, the fact that the vehicles don’t make any sound is dangerous to pedestrians, who cannot hear them incoming. In response, the EU has recently introduced regulations stipulating that there must be an acoustic vehicle alert system (AVAS) in all-new electric vehicles by 2021. 

The HY Project foresees these regulations. The device can be installed in any vehicle, and its microprocessor adapts the sound of the car to match its speed, sending over 15 billion instructions per second, which the human ear can pick up in real-time. 

The researchers found that plants grow better and absorb more nutrients when exposed to a certain range of waveform spectrum vibrations. The AVAS sound of the HY Project sits at this pitch, helping plants to grow, whilst avoiding the noise pollution of normal vehicles. 

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