My UK Gen 4 has no audible warning when the car is using EV alone, so I'm now reflecting whether my car not being 'heard' on approach was a factor in the road rage I experienced in London today? I followed Google Maps which took me off the main roads and down some small narrow side streets, in order to beat traffic. My car doors were locked but my driver's side window was open. As I drove at 20mph down one side street with cars parked either side, and only room for one car in the middle of the street, I noticed a boy of approx 15 years age cycling in a random manner up ahead, but then he zoomed off down another side street. As I continued to drive up the street, he re-appeared and re-entered the street I was driving on, not bothering to check if a car was coming and almost collided with my car. Just before this near-miss, I had beeped my horn and shouted something like, Watch where you are going you idiot, or something along those lines. He then stopped, dropped his bike in front of my car on the road, so that I was effectively blocked from moving forwards. He then ran over to my door, and tried to pull it, luckily it was locked, but he then was being verbally aggressive, so I tried to close my window. As the window was going up, he put his hand on it and so the anti-jam feature then sent it back down again. He then leaned towards me and said twice "Apologise for beeping your horn or I'll bust your face." Having grown up in London, this kid was one of those thugs who came across as rather menacing. Bear in mind this was a rather rough part of inner London that Google Maps had taken me through, and there is an epidemic of knife crime in London these days where teenagers are knifing people for the most trivial of things. I've also been recently bereaved so I am in a very sad place, mood wise, and I felt paralysed by fear during this incident. The kid was slim and about 5'6", and I'm much bigger but chances are he would have had some kind of weapon on him. I just wanted to get out of there and de-escalate so I said "Sorry" and he laughed like a maniac and got back on his bike. I'm just reflecting upon silent running of Prius in urban environments and what lessons I can take from this incident: 1. Keep windows closed, especially when in slow moving traffic 2. Avoid side streets and stick to main roads 3. Beep earlier if kids on bikes are a few hundred metres down the street as an early warning given they might not be able to hear me coming? 4. Fit some kind of after market audible alert for pedestrians/cyclists? 5. Fit a dashcam to record road rage incidents (would a dashcam have a field of view that would encompass the driver's side window?) Thanks in advance chaps.
I think you just need to write it off as a one off. He was an idiot and reacted normally. Over time people will get used to silent cars and he might have acted in the same way with a quiet petrol if he had headphones in. iPhone ?
My PiP had a noisemaker and no one heard it. As a matter of fact, I drove TDIs and could pull up behind people without them hearing me.
Thanks. I use the horn for it's original purposes, to warn others. A sad state of affairs when people see it otherwise. That's fascinating.
The US Gen 4 has a noise maker but I cannot hear mine. It would be great if you could share exactly what you said when you "shouted something like, Watch where you are going you idiot, or something along those lines" ? I am looking for some new material.
a sad commentary on the human condition. i doubt anything you could have done, or do in the future would help in a situation like that. in fact, he might have even planned it for his own amusement.
Not your fault (except for a little culpability with the name calling). Not the car's fault. It is purely the kid's fault. Probably partly his parents, too. I suspect he was coddled. Our prisons are packed with people who were coddled "growing up" and never grew up. It's a good idea to stay out of places like that, but that stuff can happen anywhere, any time.
My brother's a retired cop and he told me that even with the lights and sirens going people would still walk/turn right in front of him.
I believe all U.S. Prii have had since Model Year 2012. And I can hear mine. I don't know how hard it would be to install one of ours to your car, but aftermarket units (that don't shut off at a preset speed) ought to be available.
i can only hear mine in the garage with window down, or similar situation. wouldn't have stopped the nut job.
In part, that is because you are inside the car, while the noise is outside. There are also the matters ambient noise, and degree of hearing loss. It can't be loud enough to alert everyone without causing excessive noise pollution. In my community, some railroad track fatalities have shown that even freight train horns are not loud enough to get the attention of some teens gabbing on the phone or listening to portable music players.
I'd certainly like some additional choices -- something much softer for pedestrian and parking lot alerts, and something equivalent to a locomotive airhorn for the seriously dangerous stunt drivers.
The Vehicle Proximity Notification System volume can be adjusted on North American vehicles (it's set at the lowest volume as factory default). Can it be adjusted in the UK? I'd just write it off as a hooligan that was just trying to feel big. No, a dashcam will not be able to capture the driver's side (unless you mount the camera on the rear windscreen, facing forward such that it can see both front seats and both front windows. Even then, the headrests might obscure it.
Prius in EU doesn't have any noise maker. But people do not hear the Prius even when the ICE is on. It happened to me with the Gen3 multiple times. So my strategy is to keep distance, stop and wait if possible, use lightly the horn (which I am afraid will cause trouble or harm even for the reaction), and in general really be very cautious and expect that *anything* can happen unpredictably with pedestrians and bikes. They will never follow any rule or common sense, ever... I have had instead cyclist that I approached in EV, that moved to the side simply hearing the tire rolling noise. The problem is not the car, is how and about people go around streets. Whether pedestrians, cyclists, car riders. A lot of people are either listening to music and don't LOOK and simply forget they can die if hit. Car drivers are checking their phones and honk at you and treat you like sh*t, because they don't monitor traffic, rather their facebook page, and are startled when they see somebody changing lane (namely me) with the blinker on since several seconds, waiting for them to give me a sign they saw me (i.e. slowing a bit down by simply stopping accelerating). To the OP, I would say the guy would have caused trouble in any case, Prius or not. And was looking for a fight, and you unwillingly gave him motive, by telling him off. Even addressing him more politely wouldn't have changed things. I never drive with my windows open, regardless of where I drive. The air usually stinks from the drivers preceding me, I get allergy, or it is not efficient to do so. And even more so if I were to drive in a "bad" part of town. Munich is very safe though, I don't even lock my doors. Silent cars are not the issue: people die under trains, regular cars, trams. It happens ever more often. As it seems "people" are becoming more and more idiotic and numb, when they leave home, stick their headphones, and check Facebook. The rest of the planet doesn't exist anymore. Silent Prius or not.
