Irritating Alarm When In Reverse. Options

[anthony2816]

2007 Prius. Recently had some rear-end body damage repaired, and since getting the car back, whenever the car is in reverse I get a loud, irritating alarm from the dashboard (similar to the seatbelt alarm). Never had this before.

I took it to the dealer to get the thing turned off, and they said they couldn't figure out how to disable it, and in fact it's a standard feature on all Prius models, and they have no idea why my Prius never did it until the recent repair, and that it's important to have this alarm because the Prius can be very quiet when backing up. How an alarm on the inside of the car is supposed to warn people outside the car, I don't have a clue.

So...do all Prius cars have a loud dinging sound coming from the dashboard when in reverse? My mother-in-law's older model Prius sure doesn't.

And either way, does anyone have a clue how to turn the darn thing off?