Toyota Motor Co. is including a feature in the latest version of the Sienna minivan called "Driver Easy Speak" to help parents yell at their kids when they misbehave in the back seats.
The option is being provided with a built-in microphone that amplifies a parent's voice through speakers in the back seats, according to WTSP 10 News. This feature is designed so that kids don't talk back.
The Japanese automaker said it added Easy Speak "so parents don't have to shout to passengers in the back."
The 2015 Sienna is also receiving a new interior and an optional "pull-down conversation mirror" that parents can use to check on their kids without turning around, the Associated Press reported.
Jessica Caldwell, senior analyst at the Edmunds.com automotive website, said car companies are looking for ways to make the minivan more appealing to today's drivers, such as Honda's addition of a vacuum cleaner in the back of its Odyssey minivan last year. Caldwell added these kinds of features are important for car makers to make minivans more stylish.
"I think they're on the right lines of trying to find these features that people are going to talk about," she said.
Sales for minivans reached their highest in 2000 at 1.37 million, but declined in 2009 to 415,000, when sales reached their lowest point during the Great Recession, WTSP 10 News reported. However, sales have increased as the market recovered, with people buying almost 519,000 vans last year.
Despite a decline in the minivan market, some new versions of the vehicle are being made, such as Ford's new family hauler, which is designed after the Transit Connect small commercial van, and Chrysler's new and improved Town & County minivan.
Only vans that feature Toyota's Entune premium audio systems will include "Driver Easy Speak." Toyota has not yet revealed the prices for the van and the new feature, the Associated Press reported.
The new Sienna is being introduced through social media, and Toyota is also set to unveil it at an arts festival in Baltimore this weekend. The minivan is scheduled to be available in showrooms this fall.
