Safety concern - Power off while in motion

The car will shift to neutral if you are going faster than a few miles per hour if you press "P". The car will shift to "R" if you are going only a few miles per hour - remembering that "R" and "D" and "B" are not really "gears", but rather a request to:
R - please reverse the rotation of MG2 to back up (or is it MG1 - I can never remember this).
D - please configure the system to go forward.
B - please configure the system to use engine braking and more regenerative braking.
P - please stop moving the car and engage the parking pawl.

All the above are only done when the software deems it safe to do so. You -can- put the car in "D" while moving backward. It does no harm as it only happens at low speeds and appears to only involve the electric MG. You can also put the car in "R" while moving forward slowly. Again, no harm as it only involves the electric part of the system. I suppose it could generate a "spike" in the electronics if you were crazy with it. That -could- burn out the hybrid electronics.

If you mess with the system at highway speeds it will protect itself - will shift to "N", will not shift to "R" or "P", etc. You will have to stop and shift back to "D" if you try this - the car is programmed to consider this kind of action an "emergency" so stopping is required. If it could it would slap you upside the head!

 

If you want to know what happens if you turn the car off while driving, why not just try it? I did.

Hold the power button down while moving for a few seconds, and the car goes into a variant of "ACC" state. The green LED on the power button is lit, and the dash display goes blank, except for the gear indicator, which shows it's gone to "N".

If I recall correctly, you lose power steering. I can't recall if you lose power braking, but I don't think so.

When you come to a halt and press "P", the gear indicator on the dash vanishes, and you're back in normal "ACC" mode.

Nothing spectacular happens - I don't understand why people are afraid to try it, to be honest. Although it is interesting to see the car go into a mode that you can't otherwise get to (ACC + "N").

Nonsense, I'm afraid. You shift back from "N" to "D" just by pushing the lever. No need to stop. (Think about it - how daft would that be. having to come to a stop just because you pushed the lever the wrong way?)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(victor @ Dec 2 2004, 08:48 AM) [snapback]54621[/snapback]</div>

If a passenger reached over and pressed the button, I guarntee I would have a heart attack!