One of the most agitating aspects of the Prius dash is the orange airbag light. Why idoes it have to be the international color for a bad condition? Due to previous jobs, I am trained to react to orange or red warning lights as a serious situation. Now here is this PERMANENT orange light on the dash that I must go to great efforts to ignore. It appears that cars (with the Prius in the lead) are heading to the same situation that aircraft cockpits and nuclear control rooms are experiencing. Namely too many warnings, alarms, and indicators that confuse more than anything else. (There are more beeps codes and stuff for alerting the driver of every possible condition, yet it is still trivially easy to drain the Prius 12V battery with one mistake.) Every year some very strange symbol is added to the dash that requires a secret decoder sheet to figure out what it means (e.g. TMPS). Heaven forbid that the MFD reports the problem in clear English (or whatever language the driver wants.) I think this needs some attention. Am I alone in this?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FL_Prius_Driver @ Aug 18 2007, 01:14 PM) [snapback]498361[/snapback]</div> To get your attention! <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FL_Prius_Driver @ Aug 18 2007, 01:14 PM) [snapback]498361[/snapback]</div> Sorry to sound ignorant, but the 2001 has a permanent airbag light? That's dumb. The 05 has it come on for a few seconds when the car is started. Normal running conditions does not display this. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FL_Prius_Driver @ Aug 18 2007, 01:14 PM) [snapback]498361[/snapback]</div> Oh, how I loath TPMS. What a stupid system.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(oly_57mpg @ Aug 18 2007, 01:23 PM) [snapback]498365[/snapback]</div> The 2001 does not have this light. The 2007 does. The "AIGBAG" part of the light is always lit. The "ON" part of the light is what changes. Now why does this need my attention for every second of driving?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FL_Prius_Driver @ Aug 18 2007, 12:14 PM) [snapback]498361[/snapback]</div> I have to think about where I'm at in regards to red/green. At a stop light, red is stop. Green is go. I work at a power plant and red is run, green is stopped for all equipment.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Doc Willie @ Aug 18 2007, 01:16 PM) [snapback]498363[/snapback]</div> I'm looking for a vastly better solution than that.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(msirach @ Aug 18 2007, 01:45 PM) [snapback]498373[/snapback]</div> Uh, I really hope it isn't a nuclear plant. What's the reasoning for green means stop, red means a-go?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(oly_57mpg @ Aug 18 2007, 01:05 PM) [snapback]498381[/snapback]</div> I work at a nuclear plant, red is for danger, equipment is operating. Green is safe, equipment is not running. :lol: If its glowing and blue, its too late for you and you wont have to worry about it!
Well it's amber for a reason Red - Immediate Attention Required Amber/Orange - Caution technically, it's a caution light. I just don't know why we can't have an AIRBAG OFF light only. We don't need a AIRBAG ON one either.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Aug 18 2007, 10:35 PM) [snapback]498518[/snapback]</div> Airbags are dangerous for small people. I believe AIRBAG ON would be something to be more cautious of, AIRBAG OFF should be green, IMHO.
Could be for some US regulation - same as why US cars don't have factory fitted EV buttons. My Aussie 2007 model only has a air bag warning light, and a symbol rather than the word, that lights up during the system startup check, then goes out after about 6 seconds.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hoop @ Aug 18 2007, 10:10 PM) [snapback]498510[/snapback]</div> Ahhh! Right! Run. Not as in running equipment but as in run like hell. When I read the "if it's glowing and blue, it's too late for you" I _almost_ dropped my beer because I was laughing so hard. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Aug 18 2007, 10:35 PM) [snapback]498518[/snapback]</div> There are several vehicles that do this. The Honda Odyssey lights an amber caution when the airbag is turned off. When did Toyota make this change to force the airbag light on all the time? 07?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FL_Prius_Driver @ Aug 18 2007, 10:51 AM) [snapback]498376[/snapback]</div> Completely disassemble the dash, desolder the orange LED, and solder a white or green LED in its place. It should only take you or I about 20 hours, but it would be "better" than electrical tape. B)
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ Aug 19 2007, 07:52 AM) [snapback]498607[/snapback]</div> Now that's a solution I have not thought about. The Airbag lights are not Toyota's doing. This is entirely a US self inflicted pain. I can solve the local problem with tape or LED change or any number of other approaches. My worry is that regulations are starting to specify every single light on the dash, adding every possible indication in a certain color, and making car dashes more dangerous than safe. It really confused the new drivers to the car what all this stuff means and what to do......and the manual says to pay the dealer for everything. P.S. Operated a nuclear plant at sea. If there was a big problem, we could run........ but not very far.
It's almost as annoying as the time they marked the 55mph with a red mark on US cars, because in 1973 (74?) the national speed limit was lowered to 55 to save fuel. It was idiotic to specially mark every speedometer of new cars. After all, they don't specially mark every other speed limit!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FL_Prius_Driver @ Aug 19 2007, 11:27 AM) [snapback]498648[/snapback]</div> But you did have plenty of cooling water. Tom
