Press Park button when moving - what happens?

I think it irresponsible to test cars in a way that should have been done by Toyota or whatever manufacturer. Cars are machines and we all take risks driving them. But, risking voiding warranties, etc. by testing all the limits of the car is pretty ridiculous. The manual is quite extensive, and I would suggest anyone wondering about all the buttons to read up on all of that, rather than test it themselves. Doing that in of itself is dangerous. Promoting it is even worse.

 

After having first hand experience with Sudden Unintended Acceleration (described in various past threads), I now believe it is irresponsible to not have some emergency responses coded into muscle memory. Some emergencies simply don't allow time for a fatigued mind to dredge up the contents of a thick handbook read many years ago.

 

meh. I don't think pressing P or shift to B or R at speed is considered ridiculous. What would be ridiculous is if the manufacturer would allow the car to lose control or cause costly damage by not building in safety features. Darkness, distraction, curious passengers, panic, or a simple honest mistake can cause a wrong button to be pushed. I'm sure Toyota made a list of all the ways we can kill ourselves and made safeguards against it.

 

Hope so...but I am not going to test it. I am too busy focusing on gas mileage, because it tests the right limits of the car.

 

I wonder what would happen if I turned my wheel sharply to the left at high speeds...

Have any of you who shifted to park or R or B or hit the power button done this?

 

ya mon'. drifting da prius.

 

No shortage of sarcasm here at PC.

 

You don't need to, if you turn off the car it will automatically go into Park.

 

Yeah, doing the "electric slide..."

 

My 3/yo Grandson hits that and the start button regularly while we drive down to get the mail each morning. just drops into Neutral. The start button does nothing. More annoying when he starts the wipers on a dusty screen.

 

I thought a three year old should never be in the front seat? I don't know what the laws are in Australia but my other half is there is all the time for work and the laws seem to be more strict than the U.S., but my understanding is that children should be in the back seat in a booster or car seat. Then, he couldn't reach the button or play with the windshield wipers...it is terribly unsafe to have a child in the front seat.

 

I'll just cross my fingers and hope this is happening on a long driveway or access road on private land, where such laws would not apply.

That is how my extended family handles such requirements on dad's farm. There are many short trips purely on private land where the seatbelt / booster seat / back seat laws are impractical or a serious pain in the a**, for little benefit. The younger generation was trained that such requirements start at the main gate, a half mile from the house, where speed rises sharply and the possibility of other traffic starts becoming significant.

 

Well that poster appears to be a kangaroo so it might be difficult to get the little one in a baby car seat.

 

Yes, all that is true here too but I am talking about a private farm road and speeds below 15kph.

 

Well I don't often need "jumper" leads!

 

Actually, it's an interesting question.
In my Wrangler, the computer constantly monitors the speed, angle of steering wheel and a lot of other things and if it detects you have turned the wheel to far for the speed you are going at, it will slow the motor down and I think even apply the brake for you until you come to your senses. All types of warnings come on also.

I'm pretty sure my Prius got nasty at me making a hard right turn on a snow covered road one day.

I think if they changed the warning sounds to speaking some thing like "what did you do that for?" or " I'm never riding with you again" or "Wait till we get home and then you are going to GIT it.!" It would be just like being married...

 

Thanks for sharing this information. It does explain why those smart Japanese engineers design the "joystick" the dumb way. I just wonder why everyone in this forum just accept it instead of looking for the way to have the law changed. It reminded me about an ancient law in Oregon where I used to live 30 yrs ago. I remember there was a bakery in Portland that was in a hot seat because they make different sizes of bread loaves. Even the prices were listed according to their sizes but the law clearly stated that each loaf of bread must be exactly 1 lb. Newspaper at that time traced the law back to the ancient time. I don't remember well what year it was but it had to do with the hard time, maybe during the recession. The law was created to prevent bakeries from cheating...

 

You have to be very careful with the buttons. Here's what happened when I hit Park and the HVAC Auto buttons at the same time.

 

The Nissan leaf has a similar shifter, but the park button is on top of the stick, how did they get away with this law?

 

I see
P
R
N
D
reading down.

Here is the law, I find no fault on Nissans part.





Standard No. 102; Transmission shift position sequence starter interlock, and transmission braking effect. - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration