Thank you for posting this video. I had previously played the "adult-only" version from the main page in front of my 7 year old and couldn't figure out out to put it in neutral by pressing pause or stop.

Extra Credit- Because they actually have the key in the slot. I never put mine in.

A friend just made an excellent catch during his own research.
There is actually a big warning about many of these operations in
the 2010 manual, right on page 155:

So maybe some people *have* read their manuals, and are scared to
try any of this stuff??
.
What I think happened was that Toyota blew it and cut-n-pasted
some section from *another* car's manual with a regular automatic
transmission, where improper shifting could carry more severe
consequences. If that's the case, then that adds more fodder to
some already-noted "this isn't well documented" arguments.
.
I take *no* credit for finding this. I've read through the 2010
manual, and totally missed the expressed dire-ness of those warnings
or I might have called BS on it long ago.
.
The 2004 manual, albeit still sounding like bad translation from
Japanese here and there, presents a clearer picture on its page 135:

.
So maybe it's time for Toyota to do a little public backpedaling as
far as their documentation accuracy. The 2010 system works exactly
like any second-generation car in this regard. And the "N" timeout
still eludes a lot of people.
.
_H*

I liked the other video better

Seriously, if you want to demonstrate something about the prius, and have a few dockets for a camara man (actresses will do it pro bono, and i can script) I can get you something with better production values. I think QT is in town, maybe I can get some advice from him on an r rated version (TV7 or R are my two favorites for demonstrations).

Yeah the NSFW video is much better and to the point.

This is bad news for Toyota.

So now the guy can say he didn't shit into N because his owners manual said never do that "under ANY circumstances" because you will damage the transmission, lose control and cause an accident.
Easy for him to make this claim now and it cannot be proven otherwise.

Your exactly right. I read that in my manual and that's exactly why I didn't want to shift into neutral to test how my car may react. It clearly says not to shift to N. So now what's next? ...

Maybe someone will rear end if they don't notice your car slowed down.
That's the only way I can see shifting into N promoting an accident.

I do agree, but the thing is.. It says it could do damage to the cars transmission and that's obviously something I don't want happening to my car if I shift it into neutral.

If your life is in danger and brakes aren't stopping the car, preventing damage to the transmission should not be your top priority.

If you shift to 'N' and need to accellerate to get out of an accident, you need to shift first. If you don't have engine braking on a long down hill, you can burn out your brakes and cause an accident.

These are unlikely cases, so the manual is only wrong most of the time. You can put your own numbers on most of the time. That it is in the manual does put the wrong idea in some people's minds. Sikes has since said that he had the wrong idea, he has not said look at the manual it I did the right thing. In fact he claimed that the incident will get more people to know about shifting to neutral and holding the power button 3 seconds to turn it off. I would have thought the 911 operator repeating, put it in neutral would override any bad manual.

If you have unintended acceleration, shifting to Neutral will stop the problem in most situations (those where the shift actually happens). I learned on this site that I could press the lever to 'R' to achieve this without the bizarre Toyota momentary hold in 'N' method. I believe for me moving to 'R' is much more likely to happen correctly in an emergency.

Yea, I knew I should have included that if my car was gaining speed ad whatnot I'd shift that sucker into neutral real quick. However, I still think I should be able to shift the car into neutral without worrying about the transmission. I'm not bashing my car or anything. I love it and won't give it up. I'm simply saying that I wonder why shifting it into neutral will damage the transmission.

LMAO! Exactly what I was thinking.

"OMG I'm going to die but I don't want to harm my trans."

Let's see ....

... in an emergency situation, "damaging the transmission" could plausibly lead to further loss of control of the vehicle, don't you think ?

I checked and the owners manual for my 2007 doesn't have that warning. The only thing close to that is that it advises not to leave it in neutral for extended periods of time because the traction battery won't recharge. Was that language added for the 2008 model?

It could? Plausible yes, likely no.How many transmissions have you broke in your lifetime? I'm at 8 total and not one has caused me to lose control of my vehicle. The worst one let go at 121mph and WOT.