[Missouri-l] [leadership]good news about Toyota Prius Hybrid, and bad news too

[peter altschul]

---- Original Message ------
From: Ken Stewart <cclvi at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [leadership]good news about Toyota Prius Hybrid, and 
bad news too
Date sent: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:54:58 -0700 (PDT)

A few days ago I had a ride in a Toyota Prius hybrid which had 
been retrofitted with a device that produces a cricket-like 
repeating sound from the rear bumper whenever the vehicle is in 
Reverse gear.  That model already has
an interior-only repeating sound for the driver's consumption as 
original equipment.  That suggests that a similar external device 
could do  the same when the vehicle is moving forward.

That Prius was one of a fleet of hybrids now being used by the 
N.Y.C.  Parks Department.  I was told that other City departments 
are also adding hybrids to their fleets.  That bad news adds 
urgency to my long-held opinion that we all must actively 
advocate with all local and state government jurisdictions to 
include a specification in their new vehicle purchase orders, for 
a sound feature in any electtric or hybrid vehicle acquired.  If 
the manufacturers get the message from enough potential 
high-volume customers, it's sure to motivate them.

--- On Wed, 7/15/09, peter altschul <paltschul at centurytel.net> 
wrote:


From: peter altschul <paltschul at centurytel.net
Subject: [leadership] [Missouri-l] Japan rethinks silent hybrid 
cars
To: "Acblead" <leadership at acb.org
Date: Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 5:37 PM


Japan rethinks silent hybrid cars
BBC News, Friday 3rd July
Japan is considering the introduction of noise-making devices for 
near-silent hybrid
cars following safety fears from vision-impaired pedestrians.
Toyota Motor Corp."s assembled new Prius rolls out at the Toyota 
Tsutsumi Plant in
Toyota
Toyota has no plans yet to add noise-making devices to their 
hybrid cars
Japan is considering the introduction of noise-making devices for 
near-silent hybrid
cars following safety fears from vision-impaired pedestrians.
"Vision-impaired people feel that hybrid vehicles are dangerous", 
a transport ministry
official told AFP.
The top-selling hybrid vehicles run almost without any sound when 
they change from
fuel to battery mode.
The ministry of transport has brought together a panel that will 
draw up a report
by the end of the year.
The panel is considering forcing manufacturers of hybrid cars to
 introduce a sound-making
function that alerts passersby to the presence of a vehicle.
"Blind people depend on sounds when they walk, but there are no 
engine sounds from
hybrid vehicles when running at low speed," the transport 
ministry official said.
The world's most popular hybrid, the Prius, was launched by 
Toyota in 1997.
Paul Nolasco, a spokesman for Toyota Motor in Tokyo, told the BBC 
it had no immediate
plans to add noise-making devices to the hybrid vehicles.
"But if it becomes a social concern, it is something we will have 
to address", Mr
Nolasco added.



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