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Toyota Adds External Speakers To Warn Pedestrians
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."
Isn't that what the horn is for?
today is spelling optional day.
"ATTENTION PEDESTRIANS! This vehicle is accelerating uncontrollably while an elderly man panics in the drivers seat! Please make way!"
"His name was James Damore."
They need to add the sounds of hooves and the cracking of whips too, for those of us not used to these newfangled horseless carriages...
Just when you think quiet electric cars are going to help diminish the noise pollution problem, they go and do this.
Also, it reminds me of the old rules requiring someone to walk ahead of automobiles with a bell, so you wouldn't scare the horses...
We have a car with an advantage (that it is silent at low speeds), and we cripple it because we aren't used to it.
'Sensible' is a curse word.
Yes. They are admitting to the fact they are fitting optional speakers to the Prius.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
Automobiles are 508 compliant!
There was a campaign a while ago where people could suggest advertisement plots for some car brands. Some guy sent something like this in:
Scene: Blind 9 year old girl crossing the street.
Camera alternates between showing the closeup of the girl and showing the empty road.
Screen goes black and in a short while there is a loud noise as if someone was hit by a car.
The following appears on screen: "New Audi type foo. Very fast. Very quiet."
The guy didn't hear back about his plot suggestion for some reason.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
Pick your Engine sound:
1) Default Camcord
2) Italian Sports Car
3) Half ton Truck
4) Harley Davidson Motorcycle
5) Tank
6) Horse and Buggy
7) Monty Python
8) Ice Cream Truck
9) VW anything
10) F1
11) Flubber
12)...
Linked article says Nissan is planning to add it to the Leaf, too. So I'm afraid I don't understand your point.
(Also, a lot of hybrids never move without the engine running, so it's less of an issue with, say, the Civic.)
I'm not panicking, and it's not uncontrolled.
Learn to cross at the light, asshole.
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.
Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
Actually, Volvo intoduced a pedestrian protection system which instead stops the car. I think it functions at speeds below 30 mph if I remember correctly.
And do they go VROOM VROOM? That sound that legacy engines used to make, sort of like a SteamPunk car sound effect? I wonder if you can install a tailpipe and make real smoke, and get a radiator full of hot water and stuff. These electric engines are just so boring, they make no noises with water steam smoke etc like cars used to.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
Tie Fighter engine noise
Hey! Some of us Prius drivers are trying to score Death Race points, and this proposal will really impact our scores :-(
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....
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
Ringtones for your hybrid car. Downloadable for 99 cents.
It is unwise to ascribe motive
Here's what the Nissan Leaf sounds like: http://nissan-leaf.net/2010/06/11/nissan-leaf-sound-revealed/
ayottesoftware.com
It's more of a Woo Woo.
The ______ Agenda
Heck, why not just bolt a vuvuzela to the hood?
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
Please don't forget the blind that trained themselve to listen to car engin to determine if it's safe to cross. Also i like being able to ear incoming cars it help me to position my self when cycling.
There are lots of electric cars and hybrid cars round here (and the occasional hybrid bus). I have no problem hearing them approach me on my bicycle -- most of the noise vehicles make is the tyres rubbing against the road. (If it's quiet I can hear bicycle tyres.) Most of the time I don't notice anything unusual until the vehicle has passed.
Consider: engines don't make that much noise while idling, but you can still hear cars going downhill.
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.
The ______ Agenda
maybe it is just me, but wouldn't it be easier to just teach drivers to watch the hell out for pedestrians?
oh right, my bad, in this world no one can be bothered to look out for themselves or anyone else... we need to pay $150 for an extra to make our nice, quiet car contribute to the already horrific noise polution.
The problem is that people (pedestrians) will simply step off the pavement without looking if they think it is safe to do so, and not hearing any danger may fool them into thinking there is no danger - it's not about drivers looking out for pedestrians, the hell or otherwise! They do it all the damn time, and just because it's not the driver's fault doesn't make the pedestrian any the less squashed!
Now, that all said, I had a ride in an Electric MGF on Monday morning and I asked the owner this very question, "do you need to be extra careful about pedestrians" and he said he was careful but that modern cars are (or can be!) so quiet these days anyway that it's actually not so different an experience to driving a modern/new car.
And FWIW the Electric MGF was awesome and I'd love one!
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
I was able to locate a copy of the factory default sound played for the Prius speakers to make a more noticable engine sound.
http://tiny.cc/kdrv9
Heck, why not just bolt a vuvuzela to the hood?
Because unlike a Toyota, a vuvuzela can stop.
We "cripple" it because it isn't safe. Just like spooking the horses also wasn't safe when they were populating the roads. Until people learn that cars are no longer noisy, I would except nothing less than "crippling".
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
Forget mimicry. I want either Peter Weller (in a Robocop voice) or Patrick Warburton (in a Tick voice) to say "Step aside, citizen."
So record the Corvette and play it on the Prius speakers.
Of course the crowd reaction will be one of rolling in the street laughing their asses off. But at least they were warned.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
On board computer see external temperature > 26C: "McDonald is only 2 block to your south, $1.50 for a cold drink!"
On board computer detects police radio frequency close by: "Turn left here and you will see Dunkin Donuts in 1 minute!"
I bet it is already patented.
The blind have no problems hearing electric cars.
They aren't deaf, like the rest of the retarded populace, and they don't have shitty white earbuds jammed into their ears 24/7, like the rest of the retarded populace.
Electric cars driving down a street are not quiet.
They are simply quieter than a regular car.
It's not like trying to listen to a cat sneaking up behind you on a carpeted floor.
Don't be silly. Users record things for the car to play? How do you know they'll pay the required royalties? If you want a Corvette cartone, then you can damn well pay $5 for it at the Toyota Store.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
It's not like trying to listen to a cat sneaking up behind you on a carpeted floor.
Let it go, Calvin =)
Oh yeah! It'll be just like my camera phone going *click* and pretending to be a real camera.
I wonder how many decades we will be stuck with pointless throwbacks like this.