today i've taken my prius for his first car wash When i entered the tunnel i felt a little anxiety because all of the the electricity equip. and the water thing... Is it safe to wash priuses in automatic car wash machines?
Absolutely. One precaution though, don't enter the tunnel with a depleted HV battery. We've had a couple of reports on PC of problems if the battery gets drained.
If it were a problem millions of Prii would be sitting by the side of the road or millions of Prius owners would be getting electrocuted every time it rains. I run mine through an external wash once a month and haven't had a problem. The one I use has both "hands free" and "light touch" options. I select the "hands free" as a precaution against the machinery ripping the rear spoiler off the car. It's held on with screws and plastic pieces that don't seem all that secure.
It's absolutely 100% safe. All components of the high voltage system are very well shielded. The actual HV pack is located underneath the back seat, so nowhere near the outside of the car. The inverter is a tightly shielded box at the top of what's on the driver's side under the hood, and the two motors located under it are also very very well shielded. If at any point any of that shielding is in any way compromised your dashboard would light up like a Christmas tree. If no warning lights, you're very definitely 100% safe to do anything you'd normally do in any other car.
