CNN had a report on the Prius hybrid. Turns out that it fails emissions tests. Sounds funny when you say it real fast, that gas/electric hybrid fails emissions. Well, it’s because the engine shuts off and it switches to electric, if the car is going below a certain rate of speed. Zero, it turns out, is below that rate of speed. Therefore the engine shuts down and the motor kicks in and causes the car to fail.

Well, that’s not all. They pose a danger that no one has thought about, until now. Sure we’ve heard about the potential to catch fire if they are in an accident. We’ve also heard about the problems with disposing of the batteries. Here’s a new one. How about the fact that they are very quiet? So what, you say? Well, imagine walking down a parking lot and getting hit by one, because it backed into you. All because you did not hear the engine or exhaust noise and walked behind it as it was backing out.

I am accustomed to hearing the engine noise and using that to tell me that this car may back out and I should wait. But on these Prius’s, they are so quiet that you don’t know they are “running”. So you keep walking behind it and it backs into you.

They should really make them have a bell or some sort of noise making device, like a forklift or trash truck, has.