Do you have the '16 Prius? Does it beep in reverse?

Twice about 15 years ago I opened the door and stepped out while the van/jeep was in reverse. Stopped, got distracted, thought I was in park, and out the door I go. I jumped back in the van before it ran me over. In the jeep, I wasn't fully out the door by the time I realized my mistake. The van episode really frightened me.

Now I do what's called "active monitoring", looking for something (do I see Park engaged?) before I take my foot off the brake. Or, do I see"D" before I start to move forward. We just don't have the visual cue of the shift lever position.

In my younger days I used to think those kinds of things wouldn't happen to me. Now I know I'm just human and can make any mistake if I'm distracted enough and not fully envolved in the task at hand.

I'm glad you're OK and didn't hit anything.

 

One night one of our club members driving a traditional ICE car with a traditional gear shift lever pulled out of his parking spot. The parked van behind him didn't move. The obvious solution was to stop, then apply more pressure to the gas pedal. Since that didn't make the car move forward, he pressed the gas pedal harder. After the third attempt he decided to shift into drive and pulled out of his parking space. There are some people you just don't want to park next to.

Since some idiot is always going to be able to select the wrong gear in any vehicle then every vehicle should have the same feature.

 

If alcohol is involved all bets are off. Too much to lose. Drive sober, and drink at home.

 

I think it beeps to confirm any gear change no? So a single-beep wouldn't work. And its probably there so Toyota doesn't have to deal with any liability cases if anybody gets into some accident b/c they didn't know what gear they were in.

But it's curious - you'd think that since back-up cam is now standard - that could replace the beep - "hey.. if your screen is showing you stuff behind your car.. it means your'e in reverse!!!"

At the VERY LEAST - they should atlas have a setting to set the VOLUME of the beep - they can choose the range of volume but for gawd's sakes let us atleast adjust the volume so it isn't SO FREEAKIN LOUD right? We can still hear it since it's a persistent beep.. but at lower volumes i think that would be acceptable to everybody right?

@toyota: Please add a software update to add a REVERSE BEEP volume setting. You set the minimum volume to whatever will keep you out of the courts for liability, but please let us set the volume to a level that doesn't annoy us!!! thank you!

 

OP's best tank in his '10 Prius is: 73.2mpg, imagine what he can do with Gen 4! I would accept continuous beeps while in "D" if I could get 70mpg, 新型プリウス、パーキングアシスト

 

Reviving an old thread here, but has anyone had success at disabling the backup beeping (or changing it to 1 beep?). San Francisco Toyota is willing to help try to figure this out but they haven't yet done it on a gen 4, it seems. Would like to get this handled tomorrow while I'm in getting side moldings installed.

 

My dealer had their mechanics disable this before I took delivery - it is a software change.

 

Hoping the dealer is able to figure this out tomorrow! I had it disabled to one beep on my 2012, I forgot how obnoxious this is. I know some think it is smart to leave it "for safety", but in more than a dozen non-Prius vehicles I've owned "without" this feature, I've managed to survive just fine without endangering myself or others.

 

Their service techs should be familiar with techstream, if they aren't, I wouldn't trust them.

 

Good point.

 

Did mine with Carista app.

 

On my new Prius 4, the dealer service department switched the continuous backup beeping to a single beep in about 5 minutes while I waited. The tech came out with the Toyota laptop and made the change for me. No charge (good) and didn't even bother to ask if I bought it at the dealer. It seems like dealer will (should) do this for free on a new car. (Had I known about the backup beep, I would have had it changed when they did the state inspection sticker.) On my 2005 it was a self-service item.

 

The beeping is so loud (and so annoying), I figured it was not for the driver safety, but for the pedestrian around.
I personally hate it, but I have experienced the benefit of it, pedestrians are no longer rushing behind my car when I am backing up (they are annoyed as well and just want me to get the hell out).

The beeps win.

 

Had mine changed to a single beep at the 10k service last weekend. Dealer was happy to do it and knew exactly what I was asking for, said it would take about an additional 10 minutes on top of the other service items.

 

Ok, don't laugh but my dealer reduced my reverse beep to just one and at least twice I've stopped in reverse, become distracted talking to partner, forgotten I was still in reverse and had quite a surprise when I went backwards instead of forwards. That's why they had the persistent beep for reverse... for idiots like me!

 

You can set it with a Mini VCI, I was using TS version 10.3.029 that it came with and had access to everything.

 

^This. I'm fine with the beep too, still not enough, sometimes. But:

The NEED for the beep illustrates a basic design flaw: the return-to-centre, electronic shifter has created a problem. With the traditional, mechanical shifter: to the best of my recollection I never got mixed up.

 

I've only done it once since changing mine

 

Novice!