[Scosgrove]

I've had my Salsa Red Prius (Cherry) for almost two months. I got a real kick out of sneaking into the driveway without my two chocolate Labs hearing me until the creak of the storm door. Since about a week though they have started the greeting/ warning barking as I pull up, just like when I drove an obsolete car that ran the engine all the time. They can hear a sound that Cherry makes as I pull up. My wife confirms that they aren't simply looking out the window.

What sound could they be hearing? This is spoiling my fun! :?:

 

[Tideland Prius]

Must be the electric hum that they filter out

 

[finman]

dog sounds

I can confirm the electric hum that the traction motor makes in stealth mode. That's what our lil' blind pug is hearing when I pull into the driveway and he's in the carport on the other side of a chain link fence, basking in the sun (he seems to be solar powered!)

He used to not hear the Prius until the garage door opened, but he "learned" that hum meant someone in stealth mode was coming and maybe a treat would be offered.

Who says humans can't be dog trained?

 

[Scosgrove]

Ok, It must be the electric humming noise made by the motor and inverter. The first thing that usually happens when I get home is a trip to the back yard where we play ball until my arm gets tired. That's a powerful reward so it's no wonder that they learned to hear the stealth mode, even when apparently sound asleep.

 

[coloradospringsprius]

We were able to sneak up on our cat for exactly four months. Last night, for the first time, she came out to greet us as we rolled into the driveway.

 

[BIF]

So what happens if you coast in, making your final approach under zero power (ie, either "neutral" or "drive w/zero power".....no electric, no ICE)?

Will the animals learn to listen for the tires on the pavement?

Somebody please try it and report back to us. It would be an interesting learn indeed.

 

[Scosgrove]

I will try coasting in with neutral mode
I just have to
1. Remember
2. Ride through the rather deep gutter dip at the street.

I come home at unpredictable times due to my maintenance job so I will be an ideal tester. They don't know when to start being extra alert

 

[hyperion]

It's the electronics from the 400 volts and the inverter effecting the "ozone" that animals sense. It's sort of like driving under your own hi-tension power line poles. Some say, "can be cancer causing!" "or not"

 

[evander]

Our dogs haven't caught onto my Prius yet. They're tuned into my husband's Saturn and ALL living beings in the neighborhood. Stealth mode is the mailman trying to deliver our mail without the dogs hearing him and dreaming attack mode.

 

[Hybrid1]

We have a 3 1/2 year old retired racing Greyhound and he is quite perceptive to things around him.

First I have a crazy uphill driveway, but if you hit it just right with enough speed, you can make it to the top in ev mode.

Its fun to sneak up to the house without him hearing me until I open the garage door.

Its also alot of fun sneaking up on my partner, by just "appearing" in the house.

They are both getting wise to my entertainment. :wink:

Dave
2004 Package 4, XM, 6 disc, Homelink

 

[An04Prius]

 

[An04Prius]

Folks, believe me, there is something mysterious going on with the Prius, but it is not about dogs hearing silent mode or weird stalling.

I suspect the combination of electric motor energy, clean air, and molecular structure of the special materials has some unknown, unproven healing and communication powers.

Let me tell you about my pet canary.

Seven years old...blind in one eye...the other not so good...can only stand on his perch with one leg...uneven feathers...lack of energy...no appetite... hasnt sung a single chirp in months.

The first day I drove home the Prius, SO bear said she swore he leaned his pained head toward the garage and gave a out a single weak "peep".

I told her she was drinking too much ice water.

But next day, she took the car shopping and when she pulled in, I heard TWO distinct different peeps. Two notes we had not heard in almost a year. Cub suggested taking the canary for a ride in the Prius to see what happens. Good idea.

I set him on shelf of the MFD. He's too weak to fly and seemed content there. Then cub noticed, "granpa, he keeps looking up above the rear view mirror with his almost-good eye. Why dont you see if he wants to ride in the Sunglass case ?" Good idea.

So I gently put him in there, closed the door. Within a couple of miles, we heard three distinct fairly strong peeps. Then several more. The more we drove, they got stronger and more melodius. He hadnt sounded like this for years.

He even started singing his favorite ! :shock: (Ravel's Bolero).

So we figure we better get him some RSS feed and liquid nourishment (he loves heavily caffeinated Minnesota coffee, poured through cardboard). We parked. Cub ran to the pet store for feed, I ran to StarBears for coffee.

We were only gone for a minute...but when we opened the Sun Glass door he was gone, GONE Just a small feather floating.

Then we noticed a tiny yellow post-it note that had not been there before. He had scratched us a little note in parting for his new healthy life..
.
.
.
for good health...everybody should drive a Prius-- Good idea.
.
.



Above is a work of fiction & satire. It is for amusement only. It is not to be taken literally. Although real product, features, city, location and company names are sometime used, any relationship to the real products, cities, locations, companies is purely coincidental.

 

[evander]

A tweeter story I"ve never heard. Its a "10".

 

[hyperion]

Your right about their being something strange about that compt. Everytime I tried to put sunglasses in there they seemed to disappear but never left a note. Even my garage door opener kept disappearing although it was usually found on the front seat or floor. Finally had to secure that with velcro.
If these are the strangest things to occur, "fine." but I'm glad I have the "extended warranty."

 

[mrv]

a favorite pasttime of my husband and I is a game called "scare a cat." If we're bored on a weekend, we'll just go out driving, find out where that road everyone takes a left onto really goes... or when we went apartment/house hunting, driving around slowly through residential neighborhoods... Often there'd be a cat out, thinking about crossing the street or already sunning in the middle of it. We'd coast by in stealth, and watch the reaction of the cat.

My original post on the subject used to be on the Prius_Friends_II yahoogroup, but that group is now closed and deleted, so I don't have my original post anymore... But I was asked by a Toyota marketing person if they could use it for their new Prius site, and it got morphed into a "Testimonial..." Basics were that I was looking for an address, driving slowly through a neighborhood, and this cat came out, looked at my slow stealthy Prius, arched its back and hissed at the car, as I slowly rolled past it. The cat didn't know what to make of this silent beast rolling past it...
http://www.prius.toyota.com.au/owner_stories_4.asp (darn, link doesn't work anymore, and it looks like the testimonial section is gone. boo-hoo. :'(

My other favorite scare-a-cat episode was one cat that started to cross the street, stopped to look at the car, continue to cross, stop and turn to look at the car (with this puzzled look), start, stop, more puzzlement, continue as such until I had to stop to let the cat pass...

 

[Scosgrove]

There is a complication. All the posts about cats made me think of something.

We have four cats and there is always one in the bay window keeping lookout. I forgot to factor in the possibility that they are alerting the dogs that I am trying to sneak in under stealth mode. They do love to wind up the dogs! I will have to devise an experiment that takes this in account.

 

[An04Prius]

There is a complication. All the posts about cats made me think of something.

We have four cats and there is always one in the bay window keeping lookout. I forgot to factor in the possibility that they are alerting the dogs that I am trying to sneak in under stealth mode. They do love to wind up the dogs! I will have to devise an experiment that takes this in account.

Four cats. Just keep 'em away from my canary...(if he ever comes back)

 

[Hobbit]

whiiiiine...

The inverter electronics, and possibly the motor windings
themselves, make a fair amount of high-pitched noise. Not
as bad as it *could* be if Toyota didn't go out of their way to
deaden it in a number of ways; not nearly as loud as, say, the old
Curtis EV controllers... but certainly the type of noise that animals probably
hear way better than we can.
_
_H*

 

[coloradospringsprius]

Re: whiiiiine...

The inverter electronics, and possibly the motor windings
themselves, make a fair amount of high-pitched noise. Not
as bad as it *could* be if Toyota didn't go out of their way to
deaden it in a number of ways; not nearly as loud as, say, the old
Curtis EV controllers... but certainly the type of noise that animals probably
hear way better than we can.
_
_H*

One of the first Priuses I ever saw was a classic moving stealthily through the Denver Art Museum parking garage. In that environment - with the concrete walls (1) blocking most of the outside noise, and (2) faithfully reflecting the Prius' various high-frequency sounds - the car was surprisingly noisy. Fortunately, that isn't the case in ordinary conditions - and my impression from driving in parking garages is that the '04/05 model is somewhat quieter anyway.

 

[Hep]

I love the little robot noises the car makes!