Hey all I wanted to tell you what I found out: My concern when i bought my prius was the ease of accidentally hitting the shift lever into reverse while driving. To satisfy my curiousity, I tried putting it into reverse while going forward in my driveway at about 6 MPH and it stopped and started to go in reverse! At this point, i was concerned that if i was driving at 55 mph that i could accidentally put it in reverse and that it might cause a major accident, so i contacted my dealer with the question. He didn't know and neither did the techincal department at first, until they did about 1 hour of research lol. They looked at some documentation and found that it will NOT go into reverse above 8 mph! The dealer called me back and said he tested it on 2 floor models and at 8 mph it would not go in reverse. I figured that there must be some threshold that it would not go in reverse, but again to satisfy my curiosity, i tried it at 10 mph and it absolutely would NOT go in reverse. I just thought i would post this if anyone was interested. By the way, the dealer said, i was the first to ever ask such a question lol
Yup, and if you accidentally hit Park while you're driving, I believe it will beep at you and go into Neutral. Much better than a regular car!!!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mcbrunnhilde @ Jan 23 2007, 10:28 PM) [snapback]379845[/snapback]</div> Likewise if you hit the power button while you're driving.
The main thing to keep in mind is that all functions of the car are software controlled. While many might argue that this has opportunity for glitches, it also allows the software to override accidental (or goofy) things that might happen which would endanger the driver and/or car.
okay, its not like I'm ever going to meet any of you rocket scientists anyway, so I'm going to admit to a far, far dumber thing that I did. I was, as I explained on a different thread, frantic to get rid of, understand, deal with the alarm, exclamation points, and message that said that I had to put the car into park or the battery would not charge. I was not wishing to park. I was not wishing to disembark. Rather, I was on my way to the Farmers Market, where many other Prii can be seen. I had my special Grandma-made Farmers Market bag (grandma is departed, but she would love that I think of her and her bag every single week.) I turned on the Prius and immediately it began sounding its alarm. As I wrote on another site, my family ran out to see what they could advise -- they ARE rocket scientists -- and they had no clue what was up. So, I began to drive, but I just couldn't deal. The continuous alarm. I had turned the car off and back on and it was still going! Finally, in a desperate, insane act, while I was going about 3-10 miles an hour, I pushed the P button. Then, of course at the same instant, I realized how hideously stupid, idiotic, unmentionable that was. I have never mentioned it to another soul. So who am I to laugh at your actual scientific test? If you want to hear how my story came out, it came out that I finally learned here today that the message telling me to put it into park so that the battery can charge, actually means "Your door is ajar, you idiot!." Onward....
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Beryl Octet @ Jan 23 2007, 07:33 PM) [snapback]379847[/snapback]</div> I believe this is not completely correct -- I think that if you press and HOLD the power button for > 3 seconds while driving it will power off the car.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusFTW @ Jan 23 2007, 09:57 PM) [snapback]379838[/snapback]</div> Thanks for that information . . . I was wondering the exact thing.
Holding power more than 3 seconds puts the car into Ign On mode.. or is it known as accessory mode. You have power.. but all controls (steering and braking) go into manual mode. it's very hard to brake or steer at this point. I've done it on several occasions as a selling point for the car.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Jan 23 2007, 10:38 PM) [snapback]379848[/snapback]</div> The core is a very simple state machine which would have no undefined states and thus no chance of crashing; However, no doubt that there is much more software complexity controlling each component in the process causing individual parts involved in the process of powering the car fail.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(V8Cobrakid @ Jan 24 2007, 01:36 PM) [snapback]380083[/snapback]</div> Oh No ! I hope Xcel is not reading this. Next thing you know he will be FAS'g (forced auto stop) somebodies borrowed Prius!!!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Display Name @ Jan 24 2007, 10:24 PM) [snapback]380434[/snapback]</div> heh, everyone's a comedian
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jendbbay @ Jan 23 2007, 07:40 PM) [snapback]379851[/snapback]</div> There's also a little "door" icon when a door is ajar. Childish joke remembered from childhood: When is a door not a door? When it's a jar.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jendbbay @ Jan 23 2007, 10:40 PM) [snapback]379851[/snapback]</div> Okay, so that explains what happened to me the other day. Our parking lot at work was laid out by an architect rather than an engineer, so it has smallish parking spaces, and the one I was pulling into had a curb along the side as well as at the far end. So I opened the driver's door to see where that side curb was as I was pulling in. I got all the error messages about the battery not charging, the red triangle, etc. I had no idea what I had done to set off all those alarms. There was no way to see that curb without opening the door. By the way, its the same parking lot where some knucklehead put a $250 ding in the side of my brand-new Prius with his or her car door, which explains why I was trying to get so close to that curb on the side. Harry
