Toyota's Car for Tech Enthusiasts - Prius Prime "Unboxing"
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,137 words · ~5 min read
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so some of you probably saw the sponsored social posts or better yet
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tuned into to the awesome Periscope stream from the Prius Prime announcement
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at the New York International Auto Show where I ran around opening up hoods and
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honking horns and stealing the touch-up paint from the Prototype Prime you guys
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know how I do which really raises an interesting
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question why did Toyota want to partner with me again well thanks guys and we're
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even doing it better this time not only do I have my very own fully fun Prius
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Prime to unbox one of the first off the
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production line but while in the interest of protecting Trade Secrets
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they couldn't tell me absolutely everything I've also got a handful of
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interesting answers to my questions about what really went into this
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fascinating marriage of technology and automotive engineering hey guys where
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the hell is lonus sorry am I up now has anyone seen lonus so uh oh let's go have a look
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shall we so it starts on on the outside this
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is what car people do right they admire the 15in lit aerodynamic covers over
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your dope 15in Alloy rims this is so
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hard you got your aggressively angled
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headlights lines stuff and this is
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really cool there's like a a robot man face styling to the back that what you
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guys don't see it here look you got your your sunglasses right there you got your
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like mustache and like nose
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well we can agree to disagree that's fine but what pretty much everyone does
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agree on is that Prius Prime features noticeably sportier styling than
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previous Priuses why I mean in the past Toyota
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was perfectly content to build Priuses that look like well Priuses so it turns
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out the answer has to do with drag using
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a combination of simulations run on their own supercomputers did you know
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Toyota has supercomputers I sure didn't but apparently they kick
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ass because only a single prototype needed to be built to test the airflow
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separation suppression characteristics of the upper body and the airflow
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rectifying effects of the enlarged underfloor covers in a wind tunnel to
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achieve Prime's .25 drag coefficient only marginally higher than a 787
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airliner and there are lots of other things that might seem like premium or
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sporty or enthus I design choices that really come right back down to
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efficiency a slick AF front grilled
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design nope right there flap to control
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engine Cooling and air resistance LED lights these are for cool
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Factor right wrong LEDs are smaller
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lighter and more power efficient than traditional lights Toyota safety sense P
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features like their pre-collision system with pedestrian detection leane
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departure alert with steering assist full speed range Dynamic radar cruise
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control safety okay yes safety but also
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efficiency I mean a car that doesn't go anymore it's not efficient
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right carbon fiber reinforced polymer trunk track day right wrong weight
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reduction and redistribution
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efficiency let's get inside shall
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we no one's going to move the car while I'm in here
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right okay good so this is the point then where I think
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I'm supposed to mention the best inclass 19.8 cubic feet of cargo
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capacity I mean I'm Canadian what cubic foot anyway
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besides I'm more interested in the how
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so they upgraded the battery from 56 cells to 95 cells over the last
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gen and to make room for it they moved it down and forward this has the obvious
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benefit of getting the weight close to the center of the vehicle and then they
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actually adjusted the suspension in the rear as well making it more vertical
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let's move on in shall we 60/40
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split ninja
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mode you know it's always funny to me when we do projects like this because
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there's like a committee on whether my clothes are going to clash with the
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interior styling of the car like that's the concern but it
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didn't get awkward right
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ah okay so let's take a look around here
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most of this is at least somewhat familiar we've got the chi wireless
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charging we've got the color heads up display JBL green Edge speakers
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proximity sensors parking assist uh
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backup camera so it's an 11.6 in 1920x
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1080 full HD display running an undisclosed operating system that
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handles all of the things that you would tradition do through the potato oh shoot
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can we do that again take two Mark all
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the functionality that you would normally get through the console nailed
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it it's also running an undisclosed processor but I can speculate that it's
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doing a heck of a lot more than just smoothing out the animations on screen
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because there is a lot going on in here
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scheduled charging the ability to use e mode normal hybrid mode or a third mode
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that dynamically switches between them and their predictive efficient Drive
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which sounds painfully marketing speaky
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but actually does pretty much what it sounds like the car will learn up to a
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thousand stops and will Coach you on when to release the accelerator so the
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regenerative brake can can kick in earlier and work its magic even the
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climate control system was custom tailored for Prime in cold weather down
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to -10° C which involved this fancy
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battery heating element in order to keep things working properly so that means
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it's a cold day you hop in you can run in EV mode immediately and furthermore
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thanks to the heat pump paced HVAC system your range in cold conditions is
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going to be improved over systems that power the heating element off of the
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battery directly so it's that combined
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with everything else we've looked at today that allows Prime to achieve its
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EPA estimated 133
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mpge your mileage may vary full disclaimers tax is not included
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batteries not included other charges May apply well okay no batteries are included so I don't want to I don't want
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to get in any trouble saying things that aren't true which I guess leads us
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pretty much to the end of this thanks to Toyota for bringing us down here thanks
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to you guys for watching if you want to learn more about Prius Prime you can
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check out the link that we've got in the video description that's toyota.com Prius Prime and I think that
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pretty much wraps it up like this video subscribe all that good stuff um make
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sure that you like the video I think I said that see you guys next
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time