TOKYO - Toyota's Prius hybrid is becoming a little fewer quiet with a new electronic humming device that is the automaker's answer to complaints that pedestrians can't recognize sound the top-selling car approaching.The 12,600 yen (NZ$212) speaker system that goes beneath the hood of the third-generation Prius sets off a whirring sound designed to be about the same noise level as a usual car engine so that it isn't irritating, Toyota said.
That benefit has drawn complaints that pedestrians, the blind in particular, are at bigger risk of being hit by the car, especially at low speeds.
The US government's auto safety agency establish in a research report last year that hybrids are twice as probable to be involved in pedestrian crashes at low speeds compared with cars with conventional engines.
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