I decided to see what Toyota engineers did about holding the power button while in drive, thinking that they would bypass such shenanigans. But, to my surprise, the car actually shuts off! Was on the freeway at 75 and the car just turned off. I had to wait until I came to a complete stop to start it again. Pressing the button restores power steering but no throttle input. Very surprised does anyone know why Toyota did this? By the way, I'm not stupid and had a plan to exit the highway before trying this. Thanks
Of course it shuts off! That should even be in the Owners Manual, at least it was in my 2010's manual. Don't you remember the Sudden Unintended Acceleration (SUA) / Runaway Engine surge scares and scandal about 7-9 years ago? A spectacular failure of another model to shut off easily, contributed to a fiery quadruple fatality crash (near San Diego, no less), big lawsuit, and horrid publicity. Lots of other drivers had various problems and filed lawsuits too. Have you tried shifting to P and R at highway speed yet? Those are also addressed, and are actually quicker paths resolving SUA incidents.
The last portion is up for debate. . No guts no glory and at least you or someone else didn't end up needing to be drained out of a car.
Back during the lawsuits for uncontrollable acceleration that cost Toyota a billion dollars, Luscious Garage made 3 Youtube videos showing 3 different ways you can over ride the car's acceleration at freeway speed:
I think video #2, the press-and-hold power button, put her in Neutral (same as video #1). That's what I've heard: pressing power button above a certain speed will not turn the car off, just shifts to Neutral. If it actually turned off, with the attendant shift to Park, parking pawl activated, that would be catastrophic. Below that speed threshold (something like 7 mph), it will shut off, with a bit of a nasty bump. Video #3 is maybe the most intuitive: just press the brake, it seems to ignore gas pedal signal as long as you do that. At the the end she lifts of the brake and the gas pedal signal is recognized again, luckily just for a moment.
OP of this thread didn't mention the neutral shifting part when holding down power button on the freeway... Maybe they'll return and clarify?
That is not what I've understood, and not what I see on her display. In Neutral (#1) the speedometer and rest of dash display stayed on. She was also able to shift back to D. But when turning off (#2), speedo and something else shut off, though most of that display is obscured. And the turn signal didn't work, so she moved to the hazard flasher. But the MFD stayed on. The real answer would come from shifting to D: does it work, as hers did in #1, or does it fail, as OP described. In previous threads, I'd understood that shutting off at highway speed doesn't engage the parking pawl, at least while at speed. I've only tested the P button, which did override to Neutral while leaving the car On.
It's not necessary for a shift to Park to be "attendant" on turning off ... the parking pawl has to be driven into position by its actuator motor. Yes, the car normally does so when powering down. But it could easily make an exception at speed. (After all, it makes the same exception at speed if you press the Park button!) -Chap
I have to say that was exceptionally stupid, however I applaud your brass balls. I have wondered myself what would happen. I figured the car would go into park like it does when you shut it off in a parking space if you don’t push the park button. Know I know, kudos sir.
While I can't speak directly to the Gen2 Prius, this was in my Gen3 (2010) manual, p. 167: After the San Diego Lexus runaway tragedy, my 2012 arrived with slightly expanded functionality (3 stabs of the Power button will now shut it off), and a greatly expanded warning in the Owners Manual (p. 556): Do beware that the 3 quick presses works only for 2012 models and later.
Once the car is in that mode, you cannot shift to any gear until you stop the car and turn it off. From my experience nothing will get the car back into gear short of coming to a complete stop. This is what surprised me True enough. End thread
OK, to answer any questions here, I put my faith into the hands of Toyota engineers when I did this. While I risked some pretty stark consequences, I did have an exit plan I was certain the steering wheel would not lock. What did happen is put the car into ACC mode with no way to restart until you come to a complete stop. I did not know of the runaway acceleration but I can say that I hope every driver reads this method because I for one did not and would not know to do it in an emergency. But indeed, its better not to goof around with a car at freeway speeds. So, note taken. Thanks all have a good day
yeah, the runaway prius thing has been an ongoing quandary. no one really knows. the only proven accident was the first one where the dealer put several non oems floor mats in a loaner lexus and a chip and his family were killed when the mats slid up under the go pedal, and when he floored it, it stuck on the top of the floor mat and he didn't know to hold the power button until it shut down. that was before stepping on the brake would kill the accelerator.
It is an emergency shutoff, some I'm not at all surprised that gear shifts and restarts are locked out until all the shutdown processes have completed. That includes locking the parking pawl, which can't be set until the car stops moving. For this particular item, look at Page 135 of your 2008 Prius Owner's Manual: As for the alleged Runaway Toyotas, it is very major news in 2009-10, creating a near hysteria similar to the Runaway Audi 500's a couple decades earlier.
