Professor Michael Roan has joined a Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) cooperative research project in the area of additive acoustic electric vehicle (EV) warning sounds.  The group consists of members from Nissan, Honda, General Motors, Daimler, Transportation Research Center Inc. , BMW, Siemens, Head Acoustics, Brüel & Kjær, and Mitsubishi Motors.  

Roan's role is to conduct statistical analysis of the data collected related to government regulations (FMVSS-141) governing additive sound requirements for EVs and to provide recommendations for improving the regulations, standards, and procedures.  

Electric vehicles are much quieter than their internal combustion engine counterparts, prompting many government-instituted regulations on minimum sound levels for electric vehicles. This has prompted the addition of sounds to alert pedestrians, particularly the vision impaired, detect oncoming vehicles.  This group is conducting a large set of experiments, using electric vehicles from Honda, Mercedes Benz, BMW, and General Motors, at four test sites to determine the best way to measure EV compliance with additive sound regulations such as FMVSS-141 in the United States.