The hair dryer whine is a comic side effect of EVs. Most seem to have this "feature".
Their otherwise silent approach is dangerous, and we do a lot of lane walking. Consider also the hard of hearing and visually impaired. Somebody will get killed if that hasn't already happened.
This of course is only an issue at very low speeds, once a car is up to round 20mph the tyre noise is significant, and overall noice levels from EVs are not significantly lower than most modern ICE vehicles. I believe it's now mandatory for EVs to emit a sound up to I think 15mph or so. We don't have any particular problem with pedestrians hearing ours at low speeds, occasionally if we come up behind walkers in the lane they don't notice us at first but it's no problem just to trickle along at walking pace behind them until they do.
The Transport and Road Research Lab looked at this issue some years ago and didn't at that time feel there was any significant problem:
https://assets.publishing.service.g...m-quiet-electric-and-hybrid-vehicles.pdfMuch more of a risk I believe is pedestrians wearing headphones, it makes them much less aware of their surroundings.
