So, i was driving my girlfriend home late at night and decided after i dropped her off to try out this Emergency shut-off option. I pressed and held the power button for about 5 seconds and sure enough, the engine shut off, the power steering didnt work, the dash turned off, but the display and stero stayed on. Brakes worked fine and everything was fine. You really understand how awesome the electric steering assist really is after trying this. If you want to try this out, i suggest having no one behind or in front of you and be on a straightaway. It was pretty cool to try out though!
So I guess this emergency shut off only works if you needed to stop the car in a straightaway otherwise you'll get a workout trying to turn the vehicle?
Kev, Thanks for trying this out. Even knowing that there are more computerized safety checks than I can think of, I'm still too chicken to try such things. What was the slowdown rate? Did your car roll as though you were just coasting or was it more sudden as though shifted into ? Someone mentioned previously that the emergency shut-off would be good if the driver became suddenly incapacitated. It would seem to me that in this situation, the passenger would be able to more quickly work the steering wheel than get their foot through the center console to step on the brake. Not to mention that the chances of this situation conveniently occurring on the straight-away seem slim. To me, it would make more sense to provide steering assist and rapidly decrease speed. Then again, in the five seconds you have to hold the (Power) button, it would be easier to shift into .
^^ yea, you slowed down like you were coasting; no engine braking or regenerative braking. My only guess would be that you might need this feature if your car caught on fire or something, or something happened to the drivetrain. I dont really know why its there, but its kinda weird to play with
^^ yea, thats what i did. I didnt try it while rolling because you have to have your foot on the brake to start the car anyway
This "feature" is documented somewhere. If the car is stopped, it will drop to park and turn off. If the car is in motion, it will drop to ACC mode to prevent damage to the park mechanism. I believe it's 5mph or so for the cutoff.
They shouldn't kill the power steering though. It is electric. A better approach would be to go into IG-On, so you have brake (including Anti-Lock) and power steering. The high voltage would still be cut off in this mode, plus you could go into/stay in neutral. As for re-powering, you normally do have to press the brake to power on to ready, but you don't have to press hard. A light press would work as well as a firm one. I verified this as I was testing if it was possible to power on to ready without activating the accumulator pump.
