What have you turned off on your Tacoma?

Doooo it!

 

how do i turn off the seat belt alarm ?

 

Fasten your seat belt? Ooorrr fasten it before you sit down... No tools required and reversable.

 

The dealer can turn off your seatbelt alarm (or so the manual indicates on page 574 of the 2023 manual) if you can find one willing to do so. There might be other ways to do it as well. I'm going to ask mine at the next service.

I have turned off the Qi charger. I'd like to use it, but I need to take my phone out of its case to get it to work, and since the Android Auto requires a USB connection anyway, there's not much point to it.

I've also turned off the auto dimming headlights and the "rest warning" (the little coffee cup thing) indicator and the check rear seat reminder.

 

You are right, I looked at my manual on that page and is does indicate that the dealer will turn the seatbelt reminder off. But I cannot imagine a dealer would ever do that. Can you imagine the liability involved in turning that off and someone gets hurt in an accident. It’s our choice to disable that alarm but geez, a law suit would be eminent because there are people out there that would see that as a pay day.

 

Even though I think it is a stretch that a dealer would be held responsible for something like this, I can certainly understand that a dealer might be worried about the (very expensive) possibility that they could be held responsible and thus refuse to do it, even though disabling it is not illegal. The Jeep dealer near me wouldn't turn off the reminder on my Renegade.

It seems silly to me that every state has seatbelt laws in place, but we need to have reminders to use them constantly.

It makes me leery about turning off the safety features like BSM, park assist, etc. What sort of liability do you incur if you are involved in an accident that one of these systems may have either ameliorated or helped you totally avoid if you have deactivated those systems?

And please, Toyota- rename the "Pre-Collision System" feature. The name makes it sound like the system is designed to help me crash into something, not avoid an impact.

 

I turned off the LDA and the auto dimming high beams because they don’t work very well. I’m still undecided on the adaptive cruise control. The rest of the stuff is OK, and the rear cross traffic alert has saved my bacon a few times.

 

I'm into this de-mod but I'm a bit hesitant because I don't want to lose the ding-for-reverse on my MT. I mean.... Most of the time I'm pretty confident in my skills to put it in R instead of 1 but that little ding is good reassurance.

 

There needs to be proof that any collision avoidance system actually reduces real world crashes.

There's proff that these systems don't work well or do anything at night when the camera and sensor can't detect objects or pedestrians. Better lighting is not going to do much to improve the performance of low grade cameras and sensors.

Remove the touch screen and distractive system controls from vehicles. That would increase vehicle saftey. That's why the saftey avoidance systems are there to begin with.

 

They put so much technology in a vehicle that they have to add more technology to help with the distractions from the technology they put in to start with, it’s a catch 22.

 

Sure is, and you get to pay for it. I never insisted, or even asked for satellite navigation or bluetooth in a vehicle. People could navigate their way places most of the time with out having a road map, road maps do help.

Why does a fully enclosed passenger vehicle need seat belts and interior mounted airbags? None of those things can be found on a motorcycle.

I don't have any issue with seat belts or airbags. There have been occasions where airbags have gone off when there hasn't been a crash.

 

Actually, the Honda Goldwing can be had with an airbag. Motorcycle gear manufactures (like Alpinestars) offer jackets and vests with replaceable airbags for impact protection.

I like the Bluetooth, and will take that over (my now-inactive) Sirius radio any day,

 

When my Taco was new, I reversed once when I didn't want to because I mistakenly left it there on shut down. Didn't notice the reverse camera on start up. That was a long while before I cut out the speaker.

Lesson learned there.

Yours is a good reason to leave it, but for me, it has not been an issue. Just lovely silence.

 

Those Goldwings are huge. It's apples to oranges comparison, it seems odd that the enclosed vehicle needs airbags and saftey saftey restraints to be considered safe. Where the fully open vehicle none of that is required.

Those airbag jackets seem nice. I'd probably wear one if I rode.

Bluetooth is a convenient feature to have. I long for the days cell phones did not exist, simpler times. There's all of this technology at are disposal that can make us more productive, but this nation seems like it produced more when this technology wasn't available.

 

I think the level of safety of each is relative. Doesn't take much to die in an MC accident, but people walk away from horrific car crashes. The need for all the restraints is probably bc with an MC, you are likely getting separated from it and it's probably better that you do. You are unlikely to get separated from a car, so why not surround you with air cushions to keep you from bouncing your head off the B pillar? I don't think anyone looks at a motorcycle and a car with no belts or bags and thinks the MC is the safer one, they are starting from different baselines. I have had bikes for about 15 years, and you definitely know how exposed you are. Made me a much more aware driver, that's for sure.

 

I haven't turned anything off in my truck, but I do keep the interior light turned off so it doesn't illuminate with the door opening. I also put a few thick pieces of duct tape around the exterior alarm that beeps when you close the door with the truck running and the key in your pocket. With the hood open while winching, that thing is loud, especially when I'm right on top of it.

 

it's a shift of liability/expectations. no one expects or claims motorcycles are safe. when someone wrecks on a motorcycle, it's a surprise when they walk away. but look at cars, everyone expects to walk away.

few also seem to acknowledge the difference in safety changes over the years. it's just a raw 'safe' or 'unsafe' metric, and because there are now safer alternatives, all now previously 'safe' alternates that are now deemed 'unsafe' are thrown to the wayside.

the 1959 bel air was considered 'safe' at one point...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMK1WZjP7g

 

That generation Malibu is quite durable. I towed one that hit a parked C class MBZ the benz was parked against the curb AWD with the electronic parking brake on, it didn't move. The Malibu was about 1/2 mile away when it couldn't go any further. The Malibu was totaled and inoperable but held up pretty well considering the impact

 

This is my number one fear when im sliding 180 and trying to shift into reverse to keep it going. That beep is Ken Block telling me go fast and risk everything!

 

Tacoonigan