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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."
"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...
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.
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
So you propose we introduce traffic laws that require cars to at all times be going above 30 km/h?
You don't need much speed to kill a kid or dog, and it'll just feel like a small hump in the road when you start dragging the corpse under your car..
- These characters were randomly selected.
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)...
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,
what? From the age I was allowed to cross the street, I was told to LOOK both ways, never to just listen for a car. There are many things that move that don't make loud engine noises (bikers, runners, segways, animals) AND fast moving cars. If a car is moving fast enough, you won't hear is coming [till it is too late], especially in a traffic filled area, there are always car sounds. you _ have _ to _ look.
If you consider the quiet of the prius to be a disadvantage, then roll down the window and just scream the whole time.
The only reason this would be useful for is blind people. The only [legally] blind person I've even known, only walked in neighborhoods (where cars should be going slow enough to yield to any pedestrian) and cross walks (that have an auditory signal). No where is car sound reliable enough to be a decision making factor.
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/
Hey! Some of us Prius drivers are trying to score Death Race points, and this proposal will really impact our scores :-(
Ringtones for your hybrid car. Downloadable for 99 cents.
It is unwise to ascribe motive
Heck, why not just bolt a vuvuzela to the hood?
Because unlike a Toyota, a vuvuzela can stop.
Indeed, read the study. I am even more dubious of the threat posed by quieter cars. The sample size of hybrid accidents with cyclists and pedestrians is 125. 125 incidents for HEVs versus 5440 similar incidents in ICE vehicles. The study controls are also *very* dubious. For ICE cars they analyze the Camry, Corolla, Civic, and Accord. For HEVs they compare with the Camry Corolla, Civic, Accord, *and* Prius - a car with a fairly novel design and different viewability than you find in the more "standard" sedans. I'd be very curious to see how the number line up without including the Prius, but seriously doubt there will be enough data to prove anything conclusive.
So yes, I am extremely dubious about the threat of "quiet cars," thinking it is often being used as an excuse in place of an actual cause (say... driver or pedestrian inattention?). Sure, some tech-gadgets really do save lives, but too many new "safety and convenience features" on cars simply encourage lazy drivers.
+1 Disagree
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.
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.