Toyota’s new minivan gadget helps parents yell at their kids

Toyota’s new minivan gadget helps parents yell at their kids

Parents who need to control children in the back of the car can simply speak into a microphone that will automatically amplify their voices through the backseat speakers.

Tired of screaming at your kids in the backseat while you drive? Toyota wants to make that concept a thing of the past.

Often, parents shout at misbehaving children while in the car, perhaps because they are stressed about driving, or maybe because they just want to make sure they are heard from the backseat. But experts would probably say that screaming while driving only contributes to the likelihood of accidents, and no one wants to yell themselves hoarse trying to keep their kids from tickling or teasing one another.

Enter the 2015 Toyota Sienna, which, according to a report from IOL Motoring, is the first car to boast a new feature called “Driver Easy Speak.” The function allows parents to keep their voices – and their blood pressure -at a low, comfortable level, but also allows them to still communicate loudly and forcefully with their kids in the backseat.

So how does it work? Toyota says that, with Driver Easy Speak, parents who need to control children in the back of the car can simply speak into a microphone that will automatically amplify their voices through the backseat speakers. In other words, even a calm, measured command will sound loud and forceful to the kids in the back of the car. Since there is no microphone in the backseat, Driver Easy Speak leaves kids more or less powerless to talk back to their parents.

The new feature is Toyota’s way of setting the Sienna apart from the other minivans on the market – no easy task, given the level of competition in that subset of the car market. If it is well received, however, Driver Easy Speak could make its way into other family-friendly Toyota cars. The Sienna also includes a “conversation mirror” that will make it easier for parents in the front of the car to watch and talk to kids in the back without taking their eyes off the road.

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