Do Not Fold, Spindle Or Mutilate

[Sarge]

I never found the backup beep all that annoying, after all, I was only ever in reverse for short periods of time. I believe it was included since the Prius uses a rather unorthodox shifter, and for anyone used to driving a stick, "up and left" is usually 1st gear forward.

I did finally disable it after 14 months, as I found that the beeping often awoke my newborn son.

I am a firm believer in seatbelts and they are always fastened, so the seatbelt warning is irrelevant to me since I never hear it, thus no need to disable it!

[catgic]

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[Ichabod]

I'm bored by your opinionated premise, so I'm not going to bother reading your rant, but I'll answer your basic questions:

1. I've never had a problem shifting into "D" or first gear in any other car I've ever driven, and no other car has ever reminded me in such an obnoxious way. They all did fine with a light on the dash, just like the Prius has. I also have a second visual cue, which is the backup camera being turned on. I rarely if ever fiddle with other electronics while in reverse, so I've not yet seen that screen overridden. The beeping is simply redundant and excessive... although I may eventually go for a modified version of Godiva's backup beep.

2. Disabling the seatbelt warning doesn't turn off the initial beep. It still beeps at me when I start the car, and I also ALWAYS tell all my passengers to buckle up. I'm more annoying than the car's beeps about it, so I don't need the car chiming in more. The real annoyance is when someone takes off their belt for a few seconds to shift position, or at the end of a ride and the passenger is getting ready to exit the vehicle, and the car FLIPS OUT with beeps. I turned it off for that reason. Also there's no warning for rear passenger belts, so you should just get in the habit of reminding your passengers to buckle up.

In this age of deferred responsibility and legal action for our own stupid mistakes, why not be sensible and take responsibility for your own safety and the safety of your passengers?

[redrockprius]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(catgic @ Aug 7 2007, 09:01 AM) [snapback]491817[/snapback]</div>

I do not find the Back-Up warning signal-sound to be an “unbearably irritating” problem, and am seeking to understand why some others here in PriusChat find it “irritatingly unbearable.”

[/b]

Probably for the same reason that I find the throbbing, over-amplified bass notes thundering from the beat-up pickup truck driven by the teenager in my neighborhood "unbearably irritating" while he apparently delights in ruining his ear drums.

I learned a long time ago that personal tastes vary greatly among large groups of people. If you enjoy listening to the reverse beep (or find it reassuring to have an audible confirmation that your car really is rolling backwards), by all means keep it enabled. As for me, I'll listen to my jazz collection on my iPod.

[JimN]

With all due respect, if the back up beeper is such a great safety feature why isn't it heard OUTSIDE of the car? Why did it take over a century to have one installed in any car?

If the occupant leaves the seat belt disconnected long enough the beeping stops. If one is so safety oriented I hope you always wear your helmet or HANS device, installed a roll cage and replaced the crappy seat belts with a harness.

Small & quick can beat big and lumbering. In a collision there are usually two drivers who could have mitigated the situation. An alert driver in the path of an oncoming truck may have the opportunity to get out of the way.

I have a friend was injured when his Buick was hit by someone running a red light. If he had been watching the traffic he may have been able to avoid the collision by not moving until he saw the SUV slow or stop.

Again, I am sorry for your loss.

Time to install that zero/zero ejector seat.

[Doc Willie]

I disconnected the back up beeper because I found it so annoying. I have some driveway to back out of, and hearing it every day had me pi**ed off enough that I disconnected it as soon as I found out how.

A few weeks later, while maneuvering into a parking space, I did in fact end up backing up unexpectedly. Given all the distractions going on at the moment, I don't know if the back up beeper would have made any difference (maybe if it ONLY came on at that moment -- > so maybe the solution would be a steering wheel button that you could turn off the beeper THIS TIME ONLY as soon as you heard it).

So my compromise is this. Internal backup beeper disabled, and I will be installing the $10 Radio Shack beeper that has been described elsewhere on this forum. It is apparently less annoying, and adds a useful function to warn pedestrians.

[SW03ES]

I disabled them both because they're obnoxious. I know when I'm in reverse, and if I'm not wearing my seatbelt its because I decided not to.

[slair]

I didnt read the entire post, just skimed over the questions and rants.

Ok, so you dont like to modify anything? Does this mean that because we turned off our reverse and seatbelt beep, we're going to die? WTF does it matter? Its just an annoying beep to most people, who would rather not have it then do. If it were so necessary to drive the car, Toyota wouldn't have made it publicly able to disable.

Its your car, make it drive it use it how YOU want to. You dont have to use it the exact way Toyota gave it to you. Everyone is different, use it in your own way.

[hycamguy07]

Most of the posted excuses, are just that 'Excuses'

Why does anyone modify thier cars? because they wanted to..

To the OP, if anyone got into a situation where the modification was the fault of a problem with the car. Or they where involved in a accident because they turned off their reverse beeper. they would blame somone or say that it wasnt working..

I find it funny at how many drivers that have years of expieriance DRIVING..... and they have their car stall so they put the car in park restart and think they just pout the car in drive but really put it in reverse and when the light turns green BAM..


They modify the car because they want to make the car better for them who cares if it has state of the art saftey items (like the warning beeper) I would venture to say if the insurance industry would NOT pay on vehicle claims because a modificaion was made there would be less mods being done to new cars... Just my 2 cents...

Ps the pictures you posted 3 would be serious to fatal ..

[ZA_Andy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hycamguy07 @ Aug 9 2007, 01:09 PM) [snapback]493056[/snapback]</div>

who cares if it has state of the art saftey items (like the warning beeper).....[/b]

Except the beeper isn't a state of the art safety system. It's a device put there at the request of expensive lawyers who's job is to protect Toyota from potential third-party liability claims. Thus they're a state of the art legal device and not there for our benefit as owners and drivers at all.

Put it this way: you don't find a reversing beeper on a Chevy Cavalier do you? Why not? Because when you put one of those in reverse, you can hear the engine running, and the revs increasing as you put your foot down. You can see out the back, so whatever happens then is entirely your problem. Thus if you back up over someone, they can't really sue Chevy for your stupidity or negligence because you were the driver and the car just did what you told it. However, the Prius backs up in total silence because the ICE doesn't provide the motive power in reverse. Thus if you back up over someone, and Toyota didn't give you a means to be fully aware you were in reverse, there is potential for them to be hit by a suit for contributing to the injury or death.

However, since one has to have some competence to get a drivers license (apparently not all that much competence in some locations) if a driver is prepared to assume responsibility for defeating the warning, Toyota has done it's job protecting it's own backside and doesn't care a bit.

If the beeper was meant as a state of the art warning device it would, as has been said already, have been on the outside so that not only was the driver made aware of the obviously somnambulistic action of engaging reverse, but that pedestrians were too.