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Toyota Adds External Speakers To Warn Pedestrians

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the noise-pollution dept.

HockeyPuck writes "When I was a kid, playing with my matchbox cars, I used to say 'VROOOM VROOOM' to pretend my toy cars had big engines in them. Well it seems that Toyota has decided to do the same thing with the Prius by optionally installing, in Japan, external speakers to alert pedestrians of oncoming Priuses."

4 of 531 comments (clear)

  1. So it'll be like Nissan's electric cars by Kitkoan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This was already noted by Nissan a while back when they decided to make their next electric cars sound like Blade Runner. Its a safety feature to make sure people like the blind can hear them so they don't walk right into a quiet electric car just as it's turning a corner at the lights.

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  2. $148? How about bicycle tech? by aapold · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A playing card in the rims could do that for a lot less, and I'll wager the drag would cost less than the energy drain of the speaker system too....

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    "Waste not one watt!" - CZ
  3. Re:If they do, I want options! by NevarMore · · Score: 4, Interesting

    TIE fighter.

  4. Re:What a shame by cgenman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To be fair, Toyota is crippling it in one market, optionally, by the owner's choice. That's very different than a state requirement that must be met.

    Of course, I've always wanted an option that wasn't quite horn, but wasn't just sitting-politely-waiting either. Keep the horn for the "Oh God We're All Going To Die" moments, and have some sort of sub-horn for "The light turned green: stop texting and drive" or "No really, we're in a right-turn-on-red state."

    If we could hook the outside speaker up to a microphone on the dashboard, I'd be happy. Well, I'd be angry, and there would be a string of expletives that came out of it. But it would be satisfying.

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