I finally checked my Prius to see if I could find the source of the beeps. Turns out the beeps are actually broadcast through the car speakers. I hear it loudest from the tweeters on my "premium" sound system.
Now, it will be interesting to hear from Toyota's tech folks on how all that programming works, since there are obviously some electronics involved in the command to send a beep to the audio system every time a button is pressed.
Thanks for helping me expose my avatar, Jason. I didn't even know I had one, and now I'm baring it to the world!
I have yet to hear of anyone being able to disable the beep, except for a couple who had a computer glitch and the beep stopped for a few minutes We'll keep looking.
I turned mine off a month ago and have not regretted it all. It takes a pretty deliberate effort to change "gears" in the new Prius. The only time I could think of it being a problem would be if you put the selector in Reverse, forgot you had done it (gotten sidetracked, time lapse, etc) and then took your foot off the brake.
The Prius has me so trained now to have my foot either on the brake or on the gas, that this hasn't been a problem
Re: Turning off Routine Beeps (still works in '06)
Oh, THANK YOU! Thank you, thank you, thank you! FYI, the instructions posted in this thread DO (still) WORK in the '06 Prius! I used them to turn off the stupid backup beeps this morning, and I am so happy.
I'm out of town right now, so I can't go look at he Prius, but I turned off my beep on screen button activation from a setting on the screen. No secret stuff. It just said beep off.
Is it possible to reroute the beeps for reverse to an external device? I'd really prefer the beeping to be outside in the back of the car to warn pedestrians. I can already tell when a car is going backwards from inside the car.
The seatbelt one worked as well:
1) Power on with brake on (you'll need to to switch the Odometer to Odo - you can't see it in IG-ON mode)
2) Switch to Odo
3) Power off
4) Get your seatbelt so that it's in your left hand, ready to be buckled, but don't buckle it yet
5) Power on with brake on and keep holding the brake
6) Press and hold the Odo button with your right hand when "Ready" appears
7) Wait 10 seconds
8) While still holding Odo with your right hand, buckle the seatbelt with your left hand - "b-on" appears on the dash
9) Release and press the Odo button - it will toggle to "b-off"
Turn off the car and you're done.
I bet you could get this same thing to work with when the driver side door is opened with the key still plugged in... but I'm going to let that one stay enabled. You know, hold Odo 10 seconds then open the door.
We'll keep looking.
