Aug 26th, 2010 by Dean Hightower
Hybrid cars have been criticized as dangerous to civilians because they are too quiet. At low speeds, most hybrids, including the Toyota Prius, typically operate on electric power alone, which makes very little noise. That can be dangerous in cities where pedestrians, particularly blind or seeing-impaired people, rely on audio cues to tell if a vehicle is nearby before crossing streets. Toyota has announced it will add a speaker to the Prius to alert pedestrians that the car is nearby and hopefully prevent accidents.
The 2011 Toyota Prius
The speaker system will go on sale August 30 in Japan for $148 and will mount under the hood of the current generation Prius models. The speakers will emit a whirring sound similar to that of a normal car engine. The speaker system is not required on any hybrid cars at the moment, and buyers who decide to buy the speaker system will pay extra for installation.
The U.S. government found that hybrids are twice as likely to be involved in an accident with a hybrid car as a normal gasoline-powered one, according to the Associated Press.
Toyota says that it is planning similar systems for the company’s other hybrid models, and that it is considering offering the speaker system for sale in the U.S. and other countries.
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