Parents keep it quiet, Toyota’s ‘Easy Speak’ is here
Print Edition
THE latest version of the company’s Sienna minivan has a feature called “Driver Easy Speak.” It uses a built-in microphone to amplify a parent’s voice through speakers in the back seats.
Toyota says it added Easy Speak “so parents don’t have to shout to passengers in the back.” But chances are many parents will yell into the microphone anyway.
And the feature only works one way, so the kids can’t talk back. At least not with amplified voices.
The feature is an option on the 2015 Sienna, which is being refreshed with a totally new interior.
It also has an optional “pull-down conversation mirror” that lets drivers check on kids without turning around.
Automakers are trying to come up with creative ways to make the out-of-fashion minivan more appealing, said Jessica Caldwell, senior analyst at the Edmunds.com automotive website. Last year Honda unveiled a vacuum cleaner built into the back of its revamped Odyssey minivan that got a lot of attention.
Such features are important because there’s little automakers can do to make the practical but bland vans more stylish, Caldwell conceded.
“I think they’re on the right lines of trying to find these features that people are going to talk about,” she said.
Minivan sales peaked at 1.37 million in 2000, but fell as low as 415,000 in 2009, when auto sales bottomed during the Great Recession. Sales have risen as the market rebounded, and last year people bought just under 519,000 of the vans.
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