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Toyota has announced a solar roof option on the new Prius that will help cool the car when parked. The claim is that the A/C will not have to work as hard to cool the car off when driving when "pre-cooled" by the solar-powered fans.

Do you think Toyota is just using this as an opportunistic gimmick, or do you think it's a genuinely worthwhile feature?  

neither, I am pretty sure they have been selling such things as aftermarket add ons for a while so it is not a breakthrough. However I would think it is a smart idea to include especially on a hybrid electric car where conceivably you will be running on just battery power when you first start driving the car. But if the car is hot and you have to sap more power from the drive train to cool down the interior you get less full electric drive time thus the solar vent option.  

I saw the tv commercial, it's a nice  

It's not new, you could get it on Audis for awhile. Seems like it couldn't hurt. I think it's a pretty sweet option, actually. Wish my car had it!  

Not new tech just reapplication of off the shelf.