Invisible Prius?

I am pretty sure people see the small front profile and assume the Prius is much further away. This combined with a perception that Prii are driven slowly causes a problem from time to time.

 

i just find people completely rude these days

 

We've had many similar experiences in our winter gray metallic Prius, people don't seem to see the car and pull out of driveways or turn out as if we weren't there.

That's why I added DRLs, in some form or other, to our 2011.

Currently, it's LED foglights, wired to be on in Ready Mode, wrapped in yellow vinyl film for better daytime visibility.

This has made a huge difference and has virtually eliminated the problem.

I've also installed FIAMM freeway blaster hi/lo tone very loud horns for the rare times that the inattentive driver needs a reminder that we are there. Most commonly a lane change into their blind spot, where we are.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Yup, I think they saw you just fine and just plain don't care. My experience is it happens quite often in rural two lane roads regardless if you're in a Prius or not.

 

Click bait. I expected a new Prius or modified Prius that can make its solid particles suspend apart in mid air as it travels like the book “Prey” by Michael Critchton. Subject headline should be changed to careless drivers.

 

And already marginal drivers have become even worse due to little driving during the pandemic.

Did the pandemic make you forget how to drive? - The Washington Post

 

With mental distractions, humans can be astoundingly bad at noticing things that should be blindingly obvious. Have you ever heard of the Gorilla Experiment, where a person in a gorilla suit walks into a basketball scene, stops in the middle and pounds his chest, then walks out? Half of the participating observers don't notice it at all:

The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us
'Invisible Gorilla' Test Shows How Little We Notice | Live Science
But Did You See the Gorilla? The Problem With Inattentional Blindness |Science | Smithsonian Magazine
Bet You Didn't Notice 'The Invisible Gorilla' : NPR

A few years back, at a red flashing traffic light where a side street meets main street, my dad looked but didn't see the tractor-trailer coming along main street. That is, until he T-boned into the trailer's rear wheels. (Thankfully, after a couple years of prodding, he quit driving a few months later.)

 

Were the headlights or daytime running lights turned on?

Indeed—using daytime running lights or low-beam headlights for improved conspicuity is a well-known, effective safety measure. Minnesota DOT has a summary of research in this area as of 2011 (PDF).

Perhaps Toyota will catch up to Aston Martin someday.

 

I never drive without my DRL’s on. People misjudge the speeds that are way too high on surface streets. 40-45 MPH are common posted speeds on streets that have secondary cross traffic. Trust no one!!!

 

In motorcycling, we call an incident like that a "SMIDSY": Sorry Mate, I Didn't See You! People are looking for the large frontal area of a car. When they don't see that, the brain tells them the coast is clear, and they progress. My thoery on this is that as vehicles tend to get larger, drivers are slowly becoming conditioned to look for larger frontal areas. But that's just my uneducated hypothesis.

In any event, let's be careful out there!

 

Turn on your headlights.
…leave them on.

I have people turn out in front of me every now and then.
It’s not because they didn’t see me, but rather they presumed that I had enough time to slow down, and they just didn’t give a rats.

I don’t take it personally because I get paid by the hour, and windshield time pays me as much as troubleshooting a cellular outage.
My rule of thumb is that if I have to tap the brakes a little bit, then you did not “cut me off” but rather I let you into traffic and “WE” are making more efficient use of the road.

NOT judging the OP AT ALL but sometimes people do not understand the difference.

If you think it’s a visibility thing, then turn on your headlights.

MY Light switch stays on for months at a time.
It would be ALL the time, but every now and then somebody else will drive my car and turn them off.

 

Makes no difference if you drive a Prius, a pickup truck, minivan, or full-size van - people will STILL pull out on front of you as if you were invisible.

Distracted drivers - whether than be cell phones, tuning their radio, screaming kids in the car, couples having discussions, or people with their heads in the clouds - are a huge factor - worse than ever.

Unskilled drivers are another huge problem - just plain old "not being good at this" is another issue. Our driver's ed (in the USA at least) makes for BARELY competent drivers. And that assumes that people actually paid attention during driver's ed and that the "examiner" was actually very competent in his judging of their skills.

Drivers on the highway also seem to think that they're Bulletproof, Invincible, or Immortal. I can think of no other reason why when travelling at 70+ miles an hour - you'd follow a vehicle ahead less than one car length behind.

Maybe that's why we have about 40,000 MVA deaths a year in the USA...

As a flight instructor once told me that you should "Resign yourself to the fact that every one of your students is trying to kill you." I think the same caution applies to every driver on the road.

 

Yes, you can turn on Prius headlights once, and just forget about them, they'll turn off automatically at ignition shutdown. (Though beware that there ways to defeat this, fumble-fingered and otherwise.)

I would have guessed that older, long-surviving motorcyclists would be more likely than others to use always-on lights on their cars. A selection bias.

 

^That.

If I see another driver I presume that either they do not see me, or they DO see me and they're trying to hit me.

The only times my lights are ever turned off is when another driver drives my car, or when I waggle my lights to tell a truck driver that they're clear to come right (or left) - or thank them for doing the same for me.
Since the 2010 that I drive is technologically inferior to similarly aged cars, I also do not have to worry about being one of "those" cars that are driving around during civil twilight with their headlights off....because "they can see just fine."
I'd also mention not having to wonder if I'm driving with lights on when the wipers are active, but I always reach over and physically check the switch after I turn on the wipers....even if I'm the only one who has driven the car in a while.

Normally I'm not given to being anal about such things, but as we see on the news EVERY DAY.....older people sometimes forget stuff....
THIS is why pilots use checklists.
I know.
They got that habit from us submariners!

 

Agree that all you have to is leave the lights on and forget them.

There is an option on the mfd display to give you 90, 60, 30 or zero seconds after exiting the car before the lights go off. Default is 30 seconds. Zero gives you an immediate feedback but thirty gives you light if you need it.

If you stay in the car after shutdown the lights stay on. So don't go to the mall, roll down the windows and wait hours for the wife. The lights will stay on. Just open and close the door once.

Also don't shutdown and then shut off the lights manually and turn right around and turn them on again while shutdown. They will stay on. Both of these behaviors are really safety features if you were stranded on a dark road somewhere and need the parking or headlights for safety.

With that said, I am approaching ten years and 250,000 miles with my v. Lights left on in auto the whole time. A reasonable idea is to carry a lithium jump pack under the passenger's seat. The 12v will eventually let you down on its own or with help. Plus you can aid others if desired without risking your Prius electronics.



Partial list:

 

Unfortunately, the headlights don't automatically turn on when it rains if it's bright. I switch them on manually (from "Auto" to ON). I also don't like lights staying on when I shut off the vehicle, nor do I appreciate being blinded in a restaurant when people drive up and park with their HID headlights facing the dining area - so I shut mine off when approaching or when departing before I'm headed away.

IOW - "auto" has drawbacks - So as much as I like it, I override it frequently.

Since you have to have headlights on - by law - when operating the windshield wipers in many state (not Texas, unfortunately). I'm surprised there's not some kind of "interlock" that turned on the headlights when you switched on the wipers.

I don't think a lot of people realize that a grey car on grey pavement on a grey morning with a little fog or rain thrown in is pretty much invisible until the moment of impact.

All that just gives too many excuses to the folks who just plain don't look before maneuvering or think that "the other guy" is supposed to brake or swerve to avoid them.

 

Actually the normal gen3 lights operate differently in auto. If left on, they Auto on when you go to Ready and Auto off when you shutdown. They are On all the time when driving if you want it that way. Essentially DRLs which you don't otherwise have on most trims. In Canada they had DRLs standard.