Annoying back up beeping

welcome! yes, that can do it if you make a small deal out of it. it can be reduced to a single beep. all the best.

 

Yes the dealer can shut it to be only one beep. Or, you can buy your own scan thing and download a bunch of software to your thingamajig while its connected to the whatsitmacallit................just have the dealer do it. And if they charge you, ask why.

 

Do a search for the Carista app here. $20.00 for the app and $10.00 for the OBD Bluetooth connector on eBay, and you won't have to make a trip to the dealer. I changed the backup to a single beep also.

 

And you can change another bunch of stuff, as per user's manual.... There is a section dedicated just to what you can change by going to the dealer or using an OBD II scanner (like Carista).

 

There are so many OBD Bluetooth connectors on eBay. Can you (or anyone) share a particular brand that is known to work well?

The $8 ones on there from China scare me . THANKS!

 

I bought the Carista adapter from Amazon and worked fine with the Carista App and also another OBD II app

 

Thanks... I just saw they have there own hardware (about $40). I downloaded the app (free)... and assume once you go use the Customize features... then it's an in-app purchase of $20?

Well worth the price of admission... if I got that right.

UPDATE: Ok, I found the other thread. Got all my questions answered and ordered the Carista ODB hardware. SILENCE IN REVERSE WILL BE GOLDEN! Ahhh, see the humor? I yelled the silence part to be funny.

 

Dealer did it for me, no charge. Welcome change, almost as fulfilling as covering up the urinal.

 

Anyone know what the procedure is to do it with a Techstream? (I found a guide for a Gen 3, but not for Gen 4.)

My dealer said that their master tech couldn't actually find it on another car, when I asked today.

(Speaking of which, now I have to see if Mini-VCI cables come with a new enough version of Techstream to work with a Gen 4...)

 

The continuous backup beeping in a Prius is one of the worst industrial design decisions that I have seen in a consumer product. It mainly distracts the driver while backing up the car.

I just used a Foseal OBDII adapter to turn off the backup beep in a 2013 Prius IV. I used the OBDCarDoctor iPhone app, but they have an
Android version as well. I imagine that you can use other apps, but I am not sure. It connects to your device, iOS or Android, via WIFI. The only trouble I had was that the car should be ON when you plug in the Foseal adapter. It's running about $20 for a new one. No need to use any the software that it comes with, although you can. I cannot speak to the included software because I did not use it. Just get an iOS or Android app and go to town. These are the codes that I used with OBDCarDoctor:

enter: AT SH 7c0
returns: OK -- means it's communicating

enter: 3bac40
Returns: STOPPED -- means beeping off, oh happy day

 

Its in the Owners Manual. There is a setting that you can do yourself to bring it down to 1 beep.

 

But isn't it one long beep as opposed to a short beep?

 

The owner's manual says that the dealer can do that, not the owner.

 

OR...it's brilliant because it's obviously got your attention. Nearly impossible to NOT know a Prius is in reverse.

I know people HATE it.

But my opinion is complaints about the back-up beep with The Prius are the most overblown Prius "whine" ever.
You don't like it? Sure adapt it.

But acting like it's some fatal flaw or the worse thing in the universe?

Come on? It's a continous beeping, while you are in reverse...nothing more, nothing less...I actually LIKE IT. I think with the selector switch nature of The Prius transmission, it's real easy to not realize you have flipped into reverse. I like the warning.

If you don't have enough "Zen" power to deal with it? I don't think you are ready to face the dark side of the force. By that, I mean a crowded parking lot.

 

I'd pin the blame for this mess on the return-to-centre shifter. There's few physical clues you're in reverse, the beep was a patch, not that effective. A traditional shifter is much better in this regard. Couple it with a physical key which can't be removed without shifting to park was a good system too.

It's well-and-good to come out with new methods, but you have to stay cognisant of the side effects, not all good.

 

While I can understand people's dismay with the continuous backup beep, I think that it has been a reasonable safety device for the reasons explained in the two replies above this one. I never considered changing it on my 2004 Prius, and can remember a few times when I needed the extra alert that I was in reverse.

However, I have changed it (via Carista) on my 2016 Prius. The reason is that the dramatic change in the appearance of the large screen from graphics to photo-realistic when I shift into reverse also serves that purpose.

Nevertheless, I support Toyota making the continuous beeping the default option, but I do believe that customers should be informed that it can be changed. Hopefully, dealers will do it at no cost as customer service.

 

If the sound itself where less annoying, probably it would not be an issue. I saw recently the video of the BMW 7 series auto park feature and the beeping was really pleasant. Toyota's is irritating, piercing, loud and so 80s - also because it serves no purpose at all to notify people *outside* of the car. And it should be a *drivers* defined option, not a *dealer* one.

I'd say this is comparable to the 1970s trunk light - you buy a 21st century car with the most advanced powertrain on the planet for consumer use, and you get a 5W light bulb on *one side* only to light up the trunk. And all the interior lighting is essentially with old fashioned light bulbs.

Maybe I will update them to some more modern LEDs. Not because they will save any fuel (all these lights are essentially always off), but because they use those 5W more efficiently and with a more pleasant (to me, in this application) light. Especially the trunk. I mean, it is 2016, not 1973...

 

Really? You like being reminded the entire time that you are backing up that you are backing up? Is it a concern that people might forget that they are backing up while they are backing up, so they need to be continuously reminded the whole time? Or to remind them after they have stopped backing up to put it into drive in case they forget?

Or maybe it's one of the worst industrial design decisions ever seen in a consumer product.

It also can be disconcerting to passengers who don't know what it is, until you explain to them "My car is letting me know that I am in reverse in case I have trouble figuring out why the scenery is going in the wrong direction"

I just feel sorry for all the people out there who hate the continuous reverse beeping but don't realize that it can be disabled. We need to get the word out to all of our fellow zen-less whiners.

In all seriousness I think safety is important, and actually no one should stomp on the gas whether going forward or reverse, but let's face it that can happen sometimes. But I think a couple of beeps when you first put it into reverse would be sufficient. That should be the default, and the few who prefer a continuous beep can be the ones who can go out and get OBD connectors or have the dealer modify it.