Parking button

I believe it might ask you to hit it again if it is an emergency but I wondered the same thing myself as my knee could potentially but unlikely hit the button.

 

Above a certain speed it won't put it in Park. I forget exactly, but it either ignores you, or puts it in Neutral. I think ignore.

At very low speed, walking speed or thereabout, it will put you in park, with a bit of a jolt.

 

Funny enough, I ask myself the same question if I were to be distracted while driving, what would happen! Anyone tried it?

 

As Mendel said, don't do it at low speed (e.g. in a parking lot) because if you're going slow enough it WILL try to lock the transaxle and possibly cause damage to the vehicle like shearing the parking prawl (pin).

If you do it while cruising at normal street speeds, it will only put you in neutral with a warning beep. Same goes for throwing it into reverse.

 

You are braver than I am, hh!
But thank you for the info. regardless.

 

Yes, if above about 5 MPH it will go to neutral. If below it will engage the parking lock mechanism. It is not a "pin", it's a gear assembly and it's quite rugged. Unlikely to break from this accidental application, but don't tempt fate. Oh, and if you do manage to engage it while moving slowly you won't want to do it again, it's quite disturbing for the occupants of the car. Been there, done that (by accident), don't want to do it again.

 

Yikes! Doesn't sound like much fun! Glad that YOU did it! Ranks right up there with driving your first new Prius and forgetting to turn it off when you leave the car. Managed to slowly roll about a foot into a huge light post in a parking lot...TWICE! Fortunately there was a thick pad around the bottom of the light post because there was no damage to our car, just to my ego. And you could see that many others had tried this maneuver. (Fortunately Hubby was not with me either time.) Now I RARELY leave the car without turning it off after 5 years of driving Prii. The crazy things we Prius drivers do! Someone could write a book...

 

FYI, if you shift from R to D or D to R while it is going in the opposite direction .. at low speeds, say a couple MPH, it will do it! Car doesn't complain, the electric motor sounds a bit stressed but whatever.
Press on the accelerator when you shift to D when you are reversing slowly, that electric motor provides quite a bit of torque with the engine off. Close to slipping the wheels.

 

I know the ICS and the automatic braking will prevent the car running slowly into something, as I found out when trying to get almost touching close to our plastic trash can.
But what happens if the driver doesn't respond when the car stops itself ?
Does it hold the brakes on indefinitely or does it release them after a while ?