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Plug in your hybrid, pollute less?
April 28, 2006 -
Coming soon: Cars that get 100 miles per gallon
April 25, 2006 -
Powering a new generation of cars
September 2, 2005
But some of the most passionate among them are finding there are certain factory-set features they don't like, and they're increasingly finding ways to take matters into their own hands to change them.
They're the do-it-yourself Prius hackers, many of whom likely are more comfortable in front of a computer than in a garage. But unlike early generations of car buffs, they're more interested in saving the planet than winning a drag race.
"It's the new breed of hot-rodders," said Phillip Torrone, an associate editor at do-it-yourself tech journal Make Magazine. "In the 1950s, it was all about getting more speed. Now, instead of getting more horsepower, it's about getting more miles per gallon. So your hot-rodders are going to be your hot-greeners."
Jacob Gordon, a writer for the online publication Treehugger who has covered several kinds of Prius hacks, said that today's high gas prices and widely publicized energy crisis mandate such behavior.
"People want environmental technological solutions, and they want them faster than the market can necessarily dish them out, so they take things into their own hands," said Gordon. "With hacking the Prius, a lot of it is looking at your energy consumption, and a lot of stuff in the Prius is latently available, because the Prius has such an advanced computer system, but much of it is not available to the driver until you start messing around with it."
president, Coastal Electronics
Of course, it's not just about the mileage. On late-model Priuses, for example, when the car is in reverse, there is a loud beeping sound. There's also a similar sound when the driver or the front passenger isn't wearing a seat belt. Some people want to turn off the beep.
Though Toyota said there is a method described in the Prius' manual for overriding the backup beeping sound, some say the procedure is not easy to find.
"It's not something they advertise (and) whether it's buried someplace or not, I don't know," said Patricia Pizer, a Los Angeles video game designer and Prius owner. "But they're not very upfront about it."
So what do you do about it? Pizer took advantage of what she said was a relatively simple hack. "It's quite a few steps, and you have to turn the car on and off, and you have to get the sequence right, (but) it was a piece of cake," said Pizer. "It reminded me of beta testers. Beta testers in a game will have a 20-step sequence for finding an exploit, and they're bizarre, bizarre sets of steps. It was very much like that, and I loved the idea of people figuring it out."
Other hacks include making it possible for a Prius to drive mostly on battery power and in the process get nearly 100 miles per gallon, and driving an American Prius in all-electric mode at low speeds--a standard feature on European and Japanese models.
Another hack makes it possible to use the car's onboard navigation system while driving, something that is impossible on a Prius right off a showroom floor.
Dave Watson, president of Coastal Electronics, which markets several Prius modification kits, said that the hybrid car owners generally have the know-how, motivation and connection to other Prius owners to search for the latest hacks.
"The early (Prius) adopters were typically a very high-tech crowd, and there were such long lead-times (to get a Prius) and short supply," Watson said, "that they grouped together, and it became a pretty tight-knit community. So ideas are passed back and forth.
"The fact that the feature isn't available in the U.S. may have to
do with the way the Environmental Protection Agency measures
fuel efficiency in the U.S., and that such a dual-power system
would upset such measurements, said Coastal Electronics'
Watson."
From 05 Ladybug:
Rather than being affected by the EPA, I rather believe that it is
not offered because it might offend Big Oil and sell more hybrid
cars. I've learned from friends that back during the Carter
administration, when solar credits were offered and interest in
solar energy was piquing, that many of the patents were bought
up by those in Big Oil so that they could "discourage" solar's
growth by not allowing it to happen.
The possibility of getting 100 MPH on a Prius? Well, that is a
danger to the selling of gasoline and puts a crimp on Big Oil's
profits. They have a lot of influence--who is to say that they
didn't prevent the switchover to electric power in slow driving?
After the events of the last 5 years, I certainly would look for
answers within the most oil-friendly administration even.
I wonder why they put multiple seats in the car? A bunch of kids in the back of the car can also distract the driver...
Only in America...
Enter the "0,1 Revolution"
The ability to manipulate software is allowing the people to have the rights they desearve. Changing factory defaults is just another way "We the People," can choose our own freedoms.
Respectfully,
Matthew
In reality it would be much more dangerous to program your navigation system while driving compared to operating the radio or even making a cell phone call but the ludicrous thing is that even your passenger can't operate the system while driving. They could work around this by using the already present passenger seat sensor (used for the airbag) to activate/deactivate the controls if they wanted to.
A Prius Hybrid could get advancement in efficiency and get leap on it competition.
100 Engineers can?t compete against 10,000 freelance engineers college students and independent technicians. This kind of R&D could cost billions of Dollars. Software companies hate and love them for making their software better. In end the world winning on that subject.
Jim Forbes
Thats not a hack. Thats the way to do it.
I have a Ford Freestar (canada) van that I use for work. I'm constantly in and out of the van and opening all the doors all day. The van automatically locks all the doors when you start driving. A quick look through the index of my manual tells me a simple 4 or 5 step sequence involving the ignition, and the power lock button. When done, the horn honks twice to confirm.
In that regard... I've 'hacked' a ford freestar...
Read the manual.
Thats not a hack. Thats the way to do it.
I have a Ford Freestar (canada) van that I use for work. I'm constantly in and out of the van and opening all the doors all day. The van automatically locks all the doors when you start driving. A quick look through the index of my manual tells me a simple 4 or 5 step sequence involving the ignition, and the power lock button. When done, the horn honks twice to confirm, and the doors no longer lock automatically.
In that regard... I've 'hacked' a ford freestar...
Read the manual.
- navigadget guide to hack prius navigation
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by germanfive
October 2, 2006 1:41 PM PDT
- Navigadget has some info on hacking your toyota prius navigation system:
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