This happened the other day when I temporarily parked my 2023 Prius Prime on the driveway and the shifter was still in drive mode and my foot still on the brakes. I let a front passenger get off the car and after the front door was shut, I tried to drive forward but the car won't moved or resisted. I checked the shifter and it still shows D but when I check the dash the red Park was on? I wonder if that was because the door was opened while the car was still on and for safety precaution, it automatically shifted to Park? How come the dash and the shifter didn't sync with the same mode? I tried to duplicate the steps but it stayed in drive mode. Yesterday I started having problems locking the doors with the door handle. It locks and then unlocks right away. I checked all the doors and the trunk and they were all closed tightly. However, I can use the FOB to lock and there was no issue.
Maybe the dash park display was for the parking brake, not the gear selection. Many models are now having that engage automatically, like when a door opens, as a safety feature after several assumed parked cars rolled away. The unlocking issue sounds like the fail safe for if a fob is still in the car, or at least the car thought there was. Using the fob to lock confirmed for the system that there was at least one 'key' outside. A rare occurrence without a fob in the car can just be outside interference of the sensors. Otherwise bring it up with the dealer.
The PARK in red on the dash is for the parking brake, not for the drive mode. There are a couple situations where the parking brake will engage for safety reasons. You must have triggered one of these situations. Once the parking brake has engaged for safety reasons, you can either release it manually with the button right below the shifter, or put the car into park and then drive. In the manual, it says it will engage if the drivers door is open, the drivers seatbelt is off, the car is in D/R/B, and the foot is completely off the brake. I can confirm it works both accidentally and in a test. I needed to shift my Prius in my driveway several feet. I jumped in without closing the door or putting on the seatbelt. When I took my foot off the brake, the parking brake engaged and jerked the car to a stop. There might be other situations that activate the parking brake. As for the locking issue, I would have tried the passenger door to see if it behaves the same. I assume you're just touching the outside part of the door handle where those little grooves are when you're trying to lock it? It's not happening because the car is detecting another key inside. The error for that is a long continuous tone and the doors won't lock at all.
There is no separate parking brake and the P mode in the shifter will engage the parking brake simultaneously when shifted to Park. I assumed that if for some reason the parking brake wants to engage, the shifter would have set it to Park and not leave it in Drive. As for the FOB, I have only 1 FOB
I tried both sides and it did the same thing. I have heard continuous tone on 2 occasions but it locked all the doors so I had to figure out what caused the continuous tone. Once I left my iphone in the charger and another time when I left stuff in the backseat.
The parking brake switch is just aft of the shifter. It can be used manually, and @Hammersmith listed conditions where it can automatically engage when the shifter is not in P. The manual may have left some conditions, like the passenger door opening, for this activation out. Maybe interference was causing the system to think there was a fob in the car. Found this in the manual: When carrying the electronic key together with the following devices that emit radio waves • Portable radio, cellular phone, cordless phone or other wireless communication devices • Another vehicle’s electronic key or a wireless key that emits radio waves • Personal computers or personal digital assistants (PDAs) • Digital audio players • Portable game systems Page 133 lists other possible causes that can keep the SKS from working properly.
i keep my cell and fob in the same pocket. every now and then the car won't start unless i shift them a bit
The particular shifter is not new to Toyota. It is basically the Prius electronic shifter redesigned to be placed on the console and enlarged unnecessarily to satisfy older "troglodyte" drivers, since the higher leverage of long lever arms is not need to move manual gear shifting forks. The shifter in it form factor has been used for several years on the Lexus NX and the current Camry as well as some other models. It's not the shifter that's at fault. It molt likely is the programming algorithm. Basically, Toyota will need to write the code and upgrade the programming for the current installed base.
Doesn’t the shifter spring back to a fixed position in every mode, like past versions? My 2020 there is no way to tell where the shifter is by looking at it. I have had door unlock troubles when my hands were too dry or maybe it was too wet. I think the park engaging may be a safety thing as you thought.
To add, the parking brake switch is like a window one; lift it up to set the brake, and push to disengage it. There is also an auto mode for it, where it will be set and released when the car is shifted in and out of park. That mode can be turned on and off by holding the parking brake switch until there is a 'buzz'; up for on, and down for off.
Sometimes I forget I have the parking brake switch and have never used it much since the auto mode takes care of it! I haven’t been engaging the foot brake of older Prius either thinking I was still in auto mode!
