The New York Times reports that makers of hybrid cars are thinking about adding “vrooming” noises to their cars for the safety of pedestrians. This reminds me of Don Norman’s discussion of anti-usability (not sure he called it that exactly) in The Design of Everyday Things. One example was fire escapes that would lead people fleeing upper stories of a building into the basement where they would be trapped — the key was to design the fire escapes so that going down from the ground floor was more difficult to do. The classic — although not good — example is “childproof” safety caps.