I don't know if this is helping, I didn't see stats of the deaf being hit more by hybrids vs regular vehicles, oh well... Does this sound emitting safety system bother you? The backup sound used to bother me on my 2010, but how about this new 'feature' that's going on all Hybrids and EVs?
Do you hear it? It's a noise emitted from the outside vs in when backing up, right? Do you hear it when your windows are rolled up?
No, I only hear it when the windows are down and it is quiet (no radio, alone) and usually up against a wall, etc. But I notice that many times people don't realize I am there.
Naaah. Two reasons. 1. I drive a 2010. I don't have one. The snivelling, bed-wetting lawyers hadn't yet twigged to the fact that Priuses might squash 1 or 2 [edit] hearing and/or sight (or just mentally!) impaired people in parking lots every decade or so. 2. We live in a Nanny State, and while it would be child's play to disable the noisemaker, if you ever run over somebody's crumb-cruncher in a WallMart Parking lot then the same pack of weaselly, toad-licking attorneys will be alllll over you like a hobo on a ham sandwich. Unless your insured by Lloyd's of London, I'm thinking that you're going to have to come out of pocket for that one in a big way. You can't fix stupid, and it's useless to burn lumens of brain energy worrying about stuff you can't fix. Roll up your windows, listen to a good book or some soft music, and put your giveacrap switch in the "DON'T" position. -edited from hearing impaired to sight impaired.. ---good catch Rogerv! I was thinking of the idiots that run around with earplugs jammed into their heads and of course all of the good folks poking gorilla glass when they should be looking where they are walking.....or (worse!) driving.
Hmmm, I think the proximity warning system was actually intended to aid vision-impaired pedestrians- not deaf people. I hardly notice it except when pulling into my garage with a window open. And it has no relation to the reverse beep heard inside the vehicle, but not outside.
Good catch on my flub. I meant visually impaired not deaf lol. What will they do for the visually impaired? I guess just make a vehicle not cloaked lol.
it's on under 15 mph going forward or backward. it's supposed to let people know you're coming when they're not looking at you. i don't like it, mostly when i'm pulling in and out of my garage. most people don't hear it with all the ambient noise around anyway. i see people walking down the middle of the lane of a parking lot with cars waiting behind them, they don't hear them either.
Yes, it is for those who can't see the car like people who are indeed blind, people who are busy texting and totally unaware that anything else is nearby, and those talking on the phone meaning they have thier brains completely shut off. I am hearing impaired (basically deaf) and I can't hear anything (or only very seldom) of the high pitched noise it is supposed to make. I have had people turn and stare as if to say, "What the he!! is that!?!"
I too am hearing impaired, although not deaf. It seems to me that most of today's cars are very quiet at idle moving through parking lots. Of course sportier versions make a bit more noise, but tires seem to make more noise than engines at creep speeds, and engine noise doesn't take over until the driver accelerates. However, if the proximity warning system on the Prius saves a blind person from injury or death, who can complain?
I'd say the complainers are at least half the people on PriusChat who've posted about it. I suspect none of them have blind friends (I do).
Chalk another difference up for the European v US versions - we don't have it. We have the inside reversing beep but not the outside one. At least, not that I've noticed...
There's a vision blind man with a seeing-eye dog in my neighborhood. I thought the funny noise from my PiP might startle him or his dog, but they treat it like any other car approaching them as far as I can tell.
