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."

Comments

What does it play when acceleratng uncontrollably?

[Rockoon]

"ATTENTION PEDESTRIANS! This vehicle is accelerating uncontrollably while an elderly man panics in the drivers seat! Please make way!"

Also add horse sounds

[Ossifer]

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...

Re:Also add horse sounds

[bsDaemon]

Can't you just hire someone to sit on top of the Prius and crack some coconuts together?

Re:What a shame

[Daniel_Staal]

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.

Re:What does it play when acceleratng uncontrollab

[blair1q]

I'm not panicking, and it's not uncontrolled.

Learn to cross at the light, asshole.

So it'll be like Nissan's electric cars

[Kitkoan]

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.