G-d forbid people just stay the fark outta the road :rant::frusty:

This is ok with me as long as my car can sound like Geroge Jetson's car.

Is this the book? It looks very interesting.

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)

I think between this and the floor mat issue, the Toyota engineers must believe that all Americans (US citizens) must be idiots.

Only the majority, unfortunately they are right. But seriously I don't think any of those kinds of decisions come from Toyota engineering, they come from management with advice of their legal department.

LOL!
I can just see them gathering for the monday morning meeting to go over what those crazy American's have come up with to bitch about now.

I want my car tone to be like that cartoon car that's about to die:

Pa-putt pa-putt <wheeze> pa-putt <gasp> pa-putt <gasp> pa-putt pa-putt pa-putt <wheeze>!

If I'm ever forced to add a noise generator to my car, I will just make it sound like it does on the inside:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GSpbuFSr2o]YouTube - Stevie Ray Vaughan - Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)[/ame]

Good choice!! My fav is "white boots", one he did with his brother.

Oh I don't know, if people couldn't hear the Camry, they were deaf. I could hear that darn thing from 100 yards away. It makes a distinct whine when the brakes are applied, and hum when under EV. The Fusion made a funny ump ump noise, hard to describe, but quite funny to hear.

I was playing Buddy Guy - Doin What I Like Best (couldn't find a YouTube) at Volume Level 35 with the windows down just the other day - all in the interest of pedestrian safety, of course. :madgrin:

What an asinine proposal. I understand the issues for the blind. I suspect a simple device could be made, similar to a pager, that would cause a vibration when a hybrid is near. I bet someone could come up with a simple iPhone app for this (obviously hybrids would have to be fitted with a transmitter that the phone or other device picks up).

As for everyone else, if we actually started to reduce the noise of vehicles, people may start to hear other warning sounds, such as tires on pavement. At least in my Prius, when I am in residential areas going 30 or less, the tires make more noise than the ICE.

I also like the proposal for a pedestrian alert horn separate from the car's main horn. Something more subtle that you can sound without scaring the crap out of the people who insist on walking down the middle of the street and who don't hear you approach in EV mode.

That sounds like a description of the standard Prius horn. :madgrin:

One of the Japanese cars in the '90's had speakers in the exhaust to produce opposite sound waves to help make it quieter. Now they will force Toyota to put speakers under the car to make some noise when the ICE is resting. Well, make mine at least 3 12" subwoofers and a thousand watts RMS, and give me the soundtrack from a Top Fuel Dragster. If I gotta make some noise, I want to make the MOST noise a car is capable of making! Then the nuts will be going on about making the Prius QUIET!

I've actually been thinking about putting a smoke generator in the front fenders and use a Top Fuel Dragster CD and take the Prius to the burn-out contests at the local rod runs. What a hoot that would be!

Heck find a way to disable the TC and you wont need the smoke generator with stock tires! Smokem ifn you gotem

Actually there is a way, its function is to allow the car to run on a dyno with the rear wheels stopped. If you search around on this site you should be able to find it for the Gen2, don't know if the same procedure will work on the Gen3 or not.

Of course if you actually try to use it to smoke the tires it might destroy the drive belt in the PSD.

I want mine to play Taps.