It was during a drive from Tokyo to Nagoya in Japan.
I was driving through a mountain pass.
For several minutes, the mountain road was marked with white dotted lines and had no traffic lights.
When I started to climb, a mid-size truck was behind me.
I increased my pace in power mode and climbed hard, but for some reason, a Prius was catching up with me from behind.
Why? There were no side streets or houses where a car could pull out.
Although there were white dotted lines in places along the hill climb, visibility was poor and the straights were short.
At least with the acceleration of a Prius, it was impossible to safely overtake.
Why was it behind me…?
The other car was a normal Prius.
This was a GR grade, but it was a PHV that was heavy due to the battery.
I was basically at a disadvantage.
However, I was also driving fast, so I was not overtaken.
However, I ended up catching up with the light truck.
I was driving at a fairly fast pace, but when I reached a place with good visibility, I decided to pass.
At that time, the Prius behind me had not passed me.
After that, the road entered a village and the gradient and corners became steeper.
There was no way I could overtake.
I continued driving for a while and caught up with the local car again.
For a while, the road was a section with few straight lines and curves, so I couldn’t pass safely.
I kept a sufficient distance between the cars and drove eco-friendly as usual.
But the car caught up with me.
I passed again when I was sure it was safe.
Even in that white dotted line section, the Prius was behind the car I had passed.
But it caught up with me again.
After repeating this terrifying experience several times, I turned right at the intersection to head west.
At that time, the Prius was behind me, but it didn’t step on the gas to roar the engine, close the gap, or move to the center line to make itself known. It just went straight through the intersection…
I’ll write about what was creepy about it.
It was catching up on a hill climb section where it was impossible to safely overtake trucks or come in from the side.
It was catching up every time, even though I had already passed about three cars in a section where there were few opportunities to pass safely.
As far as I could tell from the rearview mirror while it was catching up, there was not even a hint of insanity.
I was driving at a controlled pace with the utmost consideration for safety, so I don’t think I was driving dangerously.
However, in a section where there are only a limited number of points where you can overtake safely, if you drive normally, you would never be able to catch up.
This is my own experience. It’s a scary story that is still shrouded in mystery.
