Hybrid's Mysterious Button (2)

1 Name: Sling!myL1/SLing 05/02/01(Tue)20:52 ID:Qw7AeZRM

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Hybrid/story?id=445794
"Not long after Dan Kroushl got his new 2004 Toyota Prius, he began to wonder about the mysterious button on the dash. It didn't seem to have any function. [] In online discussions with other Prius enthusiasts, Kroushl soon discovered the button did have a hidden function: It could turn the gasoline-electric hybrid into an all-electric car — for a mile or so on limited battery power."
"This "stealth mode" button works fine in Japan and Europe where it's handy for drivers []. But the button has been disconnected for North America's Priuses."

"One guy I know plugs his Honda hybrid into a windmill for power," Kroushl says. "It costs him practically nothing to drive."

2 Name: dmpk2k!hinhT6kz2E 05/02/02(Wed)07:06 ID:1ADY8HFU

Sometimes I love mass-production. It's too expensive to produce several physical variation on a similar product, so they put an identical product together and vary it with switches (or in this case a disconnected wire).

Needless to say, if you're not too worried about warranty, flipping those switches can give you several hundred or thousand dollars of options for free. Just like my last two laptops. Whee.

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