2021 Annoying slow speed noise

pedestrian warning system? does it sound like a spaceship kinda?

they've been around since 2012, but gen 4 has volume control. maybe your old was on low, and new on high.

 

As of 2021 models, and I believe it is North America wide, EVs (and PHEVs operating in EV mode) are required to emit a sound to alert pedestrians (and must be louder in reverse)—WITHOUT the possibility of lowering the volume or turning it off (unlike previous model years).

 

It's meant to warn pedestrians. (Hence the name, pedestrian warning system.) To put it crudely, at high speeds, the pedestrians would be dead before they heard it.

 

if you open your window in an enclosed space (parking garage, etc) you should easily be able to distinguish the sound from a wheel bearing and etc, at a few mph.

 

As stated, that is a new vehicle proximity notification system (VPNS). You had it in the 2020 PP, but the sound level was much lower than the 2021 and was owner customizable which is no longer the case.

 

i would be curious to know the volume vs my 2012, which is also not adjustable, and if it is the same sound.
but mine does not change with speed, and tops out at 15mph

 

if you're in to civil disobedience, it can be disconnected

 

My 2017 Prime on the loudest setting is considerably quieter than my 2013 PiP was. But if the '21 Prime is like the '21 Rav4 hybrid, that sucker is seriously loud, especially in reverse.

Not sure about that. I seem to remember seeing something about it throwing an error code if you just unplug it. You'd probably need some sort of terminal resistor to fool the system. But I have heard of people wrapping the speaker in bubble wrap to muffle it.

 

I have this issue as well. Is there no way to lower it?

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

a lot of people have said that, but i have not seen it done.
i think some ev's have options

 

This is what I want for my next car....The Jetsons car sound....its what the future sounds like haha

 

God I hope it’s not what the future looks like.

 

Which is all based off of a study of only 186 crashes involving pedestrians and an EV vehicles that found a correlation between EV cars and pedestrian accidents but did not investigate whether there was a causal relationship. The correlation could easily have other explanations. For example, a UC Berkeley study conducted around the same time (2013) found "Prius drivers had a higher tendency to commit infractions than most."

The Rich Drive Differently, a Study Suggests - The New York Times

The study also did not differentiate between accidents involving a Prius running in EV mode vs. a Prius running under ICE power, which is a fairly important variable in a study purporting to be studying the dangers of EV locomotion. They did try to use "low speed maneuvers" as an indication, but as they wrote in the study:

However, the sample sizes associated with these individual maneuvers are relatively small, which may make it difficult to achieve statistical significance due to low power. In fact, among the low-speed maneuvers, only the maneuver of “making a turn” indicated a statistically significant difference at conventional levels.
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EDIT - And I forgot to add: The study used the posted speed limit as an indicator of how fast the vehicles were traveling at the time of the accident. However, if the other study is accurate it would not be unreasonable to assume there's at least a real possibility that EV drivers are more likely to be violating the posted speed limit. Either way, the conclusions of the study hinge on some assumptions that weren't explored despite the fact that the very outcome of the study relies on their veracity.

Upton Sinclair famously said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." In other words, I'm not surprised that faced with a choice of assumptions those whose jobs rely on the need for action chose the assumptions that justified them taking action.

 

Yes. Yes it is.

My neighbour who owns a 2010 Prius, was outside a few weeks ago when I was backing into my driveway and he came over to ask me if there was a problem with my Prius Prime. I assured him it was normal.

 

I have a devious idea. Next time you hear the neighbor start his old tech car, ask him what's making all that noise.

 

I think it's the particular noise. I also think it sounds something like a failed sleeve bearing.

 

One of the things I enjoy about driving my PP in EV mode is the silence. If I upgrade to a Tesla, can I expect it to be much noisier when driving around town?