Has anyone disabled the proximity alert? I have a 2013 III, and you can hear the "noise" in parking lots, it sounds awful, like a bad electric motor. The owners manual says it is active below 17mph.
I guess you're talking about VPNS (2012 Prius Vehicle Proximity Notification System (VPNS) - Video | PriusChat). Some people have pulled the speaker, at least on the Prius v wagon. I do wonder about any legal/insurance ramifications if you disabled it and then hit a pedestrian...
I don't have a thread handy but probably Googling for Code: site:priuschat.com disabling vpns will work.
I wish I could add the vpns to my 2010 gen 3. When driving in San Francisco the threat of coming in contact with cyclists and pedestrians is constant.
I had my PIP several months before I realized what it was. Toyota has it for a reason, but I think it's almost inaudible to most people preoccupied with iPods, cell phones, life, etc. Might be best to "toot" your horn as a additional warning or turn up the bass on those 15s in your hatch as you approach pedestrians .
i haven't noticed mine, but am not often in enclosed parking lots, if that's where you are hearing it. Or maybe I need a hearing test?
Someone should figure out how to change the sound file or whatever it is that generates that particular sound. Replace it with something like the idling of one of those big block V8 muscle cars with a lumpy idle from one of those wild racing cams. Maybe even add in the gear whine from a supercharger. SCH-I535
i can only hear mine in my garage, but if you're outside the car, you can hear it with the ice off. it kinda sounds like rusty rotors.
The other day as I was leaving the parking lot at work, I passed by one of the guys and asked him if he heard the noise. He said he didn't. Anyway, with the windows up, you can't hear it in the car.
I have sent you my information. I feel dangerous to pedestrians who are using cell phone when I'm driving in the dark parking structure.
my wife thought she didn't have it in her '13 hycam, and i never heard it either until one day, as she started to back out of the garage, i was standing there and in the second before the ice came on i heard it.