Disconnected the EV mode speaker

My C is no longer a space ship thanks to this thread. I unplugged it the other day but left it in place in case circumstances change in the future and we need the speaker to signal the pending arrival of our hybrid alien overlords......

 

You're pretty much spot on. A buddy of mine was struck in downtown D.C. by someone driving a Prius that disabled this safety feature. The Prius took a right out from a driveway about 30 feet from the intersection, and then took a right and smacked him in the crosswalk. He didn't hear the thing coming and it wasn't there when he looked before crossing. Bottom line, because the safety device was altered willfully, his lawyer successfully argued for a serious increase in compensation.

So, think to yourself, is the little hum REALLY worth 3-5x the cost of the car?

 

Who do you sue if you run yourself over with the golf cart that you were driving? :?

 

Excellent point. Even when the sound effect is on, you can still scare someone. It's still not a normal car noise that people are used to hearing. Still scared the crap out of a cyclist the other day!

 

i don't believe a word of this.

 

You do realize that this is a country where someone has won significant amounts of money for putting a cup of fast food coffee near their crotch and then spilling it, "Caution: HOT", and where someone thought "cruise control" meant the vehicle would drive itself. "Caution: Cruise control does not automatically navigate the vehicle. Maintain control of your vehicle at all times."

All you have to do is find a creative and greedy enough lawyer.

 

i do realize that. but i would need proof of your story to believe it. i'm just a skeptic. the noisemaker is not required by law, and disconnecting it is not illegal.

 

Civil vs. Criminal. This was a civil case, thus the legality of it being disconnected wasn't a question. Disabling the safety feature opened the driver up to compounded liability issues. Criminal cases require "beyond a reasonable doubt", civil cases only require most likely on preponderance of the evidence. I'll see if I can get the docket number.

 

Aside from questions of regulatory strangulation, payoffs for ambulance-chasers, political patronage, competing insurance templates, etc... How loud is this "growler" for the driver? Is there a consensus about whether it's annoying or ignorable? Being new to a Prius C, I hadn't really noticed, but it may be I don't know the difference between a real electric motor sound and an artificial one.

By the way, as a pedestrian, I'm pretty alert for cars when I step off the curb. If you'll keep the cars off the sidewalk, then you can skip the noisemaker as far as I'm concerned. But I guess if it were up to people like me, the ambulance chasers and micromanaging bureaucrats would lose their gigs and fall upon hard times. So I ought not be selfish.

 

Here 'ya go: 2012 Prius Vehicle Proximity Notification System (VPNS) - Video | PriusChat

 

Sounds like a driver hit a pedestrian in a crosswalk when they should have payed attention and yielded to the pedestrian. The driver is at fault whether the car was making noise or not. But I'm with you... I don't really see a lawyer poking around to see if a speaker was unplugged from the car. He's already got a case.

I was in the city the other day. Silly pedestrians still try to cross the road the second the light turns green. My car was completely quiet stopped at the intersection so I certainly don't blame them. They probably thought my car was parked. My solution was to beep the horn at them. They heard my car.

Does the noisemaker make noise at 0 mph while stopped? I don't hear it so I'm not sure.

 

no, it does not. only when the car is in motion.

 

Thanks. Those folks at the intersection crosswalk must have thought my car was parked. Sounds just as dangerous to me, especially when you're about to pull out of a parking lot space and can't necessarily see pedestrians, but they can see you and think your car is parked.

 

I park rear to kerb unless specifically not permitted. If I have to park nose in, then I select R, pause, then slow and steady wins the race, even with the rear view camera.

 

Okay I'm in Madrid right now and most of the taxis are liftback Prii without VPNS noise makers. It got me thinking... have there been any studies of cities with Prii taxi fleets with and without noisemakers to see if it makes the slightest difference?

To be honest at low speeds most modern cars are pretty quiet and you notice the tyre noise first anyway.

PS Damn it's weird posting from a different timezone and having alerts constantly popping up.

 

I don't know of any studies but now the taxi drivers in Madrid will hear the screams of the pedestrians better as they run over them.

 

You won't notice it at all with the windows up or in a noisy area even with the windows down. Since it only kicks in at extremely low speeds, it's not on very often that it will even be broadcasting.

I have my doubts about the aforementioned pedestrian who was hit that having the VPNS still plugged in would have made any difference, chances are that the Prius in question was probably traveling too fast for it to even be on. I don't doubt that the lawyer took advantage of the fact that it was disconnected though.

 

I wish someone would post a before an after video of the sound of the car without the thing. Or is there one up already somewhere?