2nd time I've had this problem. With the car turned on "ready light" on, the car will not shift into D. It just stays in park, and yes my foot is on the brake. I've tried to reset by turning the car off, turning it on again and shifting into D, still no luck. By retrying this over and over it finally goes into Drive and away I go. I've had the car for 3months and 5k miles, and this has only happened twice. The second time occurred when I was stopped by a flagman at a road construction site. Instead of shutting down, I just pushed the park button. The lights were on, the radio playing and my garmin was plugged in and the AC was on, would the high load have caused the problem? When I pulled the plug on the Garmin, the car went into gear on the next try, but I don't know if there is a cause and effect. I finally got it going after about 25 cars had to go around me and the last car was passing me when it finally went into D. Thanks in advance for the help.
Most likely you are not pressing hard enough on the brake, or you need to adjust your brake light switch. Tom
This may not be your situation but I have had a similar problem due to pressing the start but (unknowingly) not the brake. This turns the electronics on but not the engine and since the startup is so silent I thought the car was on when it really wasn't. Turning the vehicle (electronics, actuall) off and on again solved the problem (again, something similar to your solution). Hope this helps.
The easy way to tell if this is the problem is that the Ready light won't be on if the car is in accessory mode (started without the brake pedal). Given the OP's description of pressing park, but not shutting the car off in one instance it certainly sounds like this wasn't her problem, however, just check for the Ready light and if you still can't shift into Drive then something is definitely wrong.
To update, I took the car into the dealer for the 5K service and mentioned my problem. The result, could not replicate (neither could I) and no trouble codes showed up. Next time it happens I'm going to try to vary pedal pressure on the brake, see if that helps. Thanks all for your responses.
If it is the brake light switch (also controls CC and shift out of Park) as suggested above it would not create a code. You can test it yourself however, back up to a window so you can see the reflection of the brake lights and see how far you need to push the pedal down before the lights come on. Quite a few Gen 3 Prius(es) came with the switch adjusted wrong, it took to much pedal movement to activate it. Fortunately, if that is your problem, it's easy to adjust.
I have a few thoughts on this, though none of my suggestions are likely to be the problem: Hold the shifter in the "D" position longer. Make sure hill assist isn't activated. It will activate when you press on the brake very hard. It's a yellow icon on the display I believe. Make sure you did not put the car in ready mode with the door open, or that all the doors are closed.
