My roommate got a Prius:)

I talked and bragged about my Gen3 Prius III so much that in the end my roommate decided to get one for himself.
He though got a 2016 Gen4 Prius Two Eco...
For the first time, I got to get into a Gen4 Prius. Interior looks definitely nice. An absolutely improvement over the Gen3. Can't say the same for the exterior though. I especially disliked the rear look (ugly tail lights) for some reason.
Haven't driven the car yet but I may soon and will let you know what I think.
But I liked ONE THING right off the bat. The car isn't programmed to start the ICE within 15 seconds of pushing the power button (with foot on brake pedal).
Finally, Toyota engineers realized that this was a non-sense stupid feature on the previous generations.

 

I am hoping that it will happen to me as well. So far I couldn't get past the stupid looking tail lights. I could have done a better job designing it myself.
It will most likely be my next vehicle so I am trying to convince myself that it looks okay

 

I figured what you meant with your question the first time you asked. I just saw it though.
I didn't confirm it with any other source than what I have experienced yesterday in my roommates 2016 Prius two Eco. He turned the vehicle on, I saw "READY" showed up on the center display and I was counting down while listening to him at the same time. About 30 seconds passed the vehicle didn't start. I waited for about a minute and figured that something must have changed. We talked more about the car, then moved to the engine compartment. While we were looking at the engine, the ICE started but by then about total of 5 minutes had passed. And his A/C and ventilation was also running. So I figured the battery discharged enough to cause the ICE to start.

This was my conclusion. I don't know anybody else to ask about this. If you are saying nobody reported that on Gen4, it maybe unique to ECO model only.
In my Gen3, the only way to stop ICE from starting is to hit the EV button (and if you are lucky enough that the computer will not reject your request) Or you shift it to "Neutral" within 15 seconds.
In anyway, I found this feature (auto start of ICE) one of the most stupid and unnecessary features (my own opinion) of Gen3 (and maybe prior ones also). And I absolutely hate it. I can't find any logic in it. If the same goes on with Gen4, I would say another big opportunity has been missed.

 

Sure I would take the function over the look at any day. But was it really that difficult to come up with a better looking taillights?
Don't know...

 

Cold start. The car was parked overnight.
I will have him check this again over the weekend just to make sure...