Inadvertant transmission change into neutral

A little more detail is needed.

Did it really STAY in neutral or was this just a momentary change in the way the car sounded and felt ?

When going around corners, it it common to drive over paint stripes, manhole covers and center-lane oil strips.
All of those things can cause activation of the traction control system under the right conditions and the abrupt change should last only
a few seconds at most. This is also likely to happen when there are moderate to severe bumps in the road.

A similar thing sometimes happens with the ABS if you are braking.

 

If it is really staying in Neutral, is there any chance the shift knob swung left during the turn and bump? Or does the knob have little or no spring pressure to push it back from N to the normal center position?

A few cars have had return springs or electrical contacts in the shift knob assembly go bad with age, fortunately the repairs were fairly easy. But I don't recall any such reports on new cars. This sort of simple mechanical problem will not throw codes.

 

+1
This may be another case of a new driver discovering the oddities of TC and anti-lock in a newer hybrid system. But if its really winding up in "N", that sounds like a faulty electronic shifter. But you have to hold it in N to get it to switch, just a bouncing lever shouldn't do it.

 

or maybe you bumped it, i have to be careful.

 

A momentary bump shouldn't do it, the bump would have to be held at least a second.

Unless that bump also pushed it up into 'R', then the shift to Neutral should be immediate, but also accompanied by a double beep warning.

 

Was it a single beep, or a double beep?

If the later, it suggests the computers received a command to shift to Reverse or Park, and defaulted to Neutral for protection. Did your hand or fingers go anywhere near the Park button? If not, then I'd most suspect a faulty switch or mechanism (e.g. broken return spring) related to the shifter or park button, as some past readers have experienced. Such a fault would not leave a code.

If it was a single beep, then something else happened.

 

i wonder if your 12 volt might be on it's last legs?

 

but worth checking, it wouldn't be the first time. it's an easy check with a dvm.

 

This is definitely not normal. If the shift-lever isn't moving at all, I suspect something is loose in the actuator controls. It may not be worthwhile tearing apart the transaxle for this, but I'd document things very carefully, and hope that it progresses to the point where you can clearly make the case for warranty work.

 

I'd guess that if it only happens on right hand turns and over a bump, then something is loose, swinging to the left and either shorting out or losing contact, IMO it has to be the gear selector switch. As said above. it won't show a fault code as it is mimicking selecting neutral or park. See if you can reproduce it somewhere safe such as an empty parking lot, where there is a depression you can drive over whilst turning right, then take the Toyota mechanic on a test drive to that spot.