If a driver passed out....

My first instinct would be force car into Neutral, hit the hazard light button, grab the wheel and try to edge to the side first, allowing the car to stop accelerating, as a person who passes out will still be pushing on the throttle at the time. Taking it out of drive might be the wisest course, but putting in park or turning off the car would be a bad idea as an abrupt stop would endanger the people behind you who would see a car just suddenly lurch to a stop.

Turning off the car will cut your steering as well, I am not even sure if it will allow for safe deceleration as I know turning off will enable the park, which is also a good way to make a car either spin out of control or possibly flip (depends on speed and also how the car's moment might carry it.)

 

yes...

lol... no.

You cannot put it into park at high speed. If you are above a few miles per hour, and press PARK the car will go into neutral with a beep. This is actually the emergency method of getting into neutral as the neutral switch takes a couple seconds.

Turning off the car doesn't cut the steering. You can do this by holding the power button for many seconds. You also maintain brakes. You cannot restart the vehicle until stationary. Again, the pawl will not attach at speed.

 

This can be done in any of several ways. Intentionally shifting to Neutral involves about a one second delay. Trying to shift to Reverse or Park at road speed will actually go neutral without the delay. Slapping the shifter into Reverse is the most natural for me.

2k1Toaster correctly addressed your errors about steering and Park.

 

I was under the impression the power cut the steering as well as putting the car in park would be liken to someone pulling the e-brake hard, which to my understanding is a bad idea as well. Same with doing reverse.

 

odd.... my first instinct would be to wake up the moron who's passing out.

 

Prii will go into neutral, 2k1 and fuzzy are correct.

 

My wife just asked me this today. Our other car has a hand lever for the parking break in the console. You can at least try to use it if the car is going down hill. Only neutral won't help much. You can also power off the car and shift into low gear. In the Prius case, what should you do if the car is going down hill? Pray...

 

true of cars with belt driven power steering pumps. Prius has a electric pump less steering.

 

Yeah, first thing is to wake his nice person up. If that doesn't work, hit the hazard lights, hold the steering wheel, move his foot away from the gas pedal. I'm not sure which method brakes faster, engaging and set the cruise control and move the lever down then shift to B or shift to B and let it brake to a crawl.

 

Shift to B for initial slowdown, if his foot's off of the accelerator.

 

As others have already stated, hitting the park button, or shifting to reverse at any speed above just a few MPH and the Prius will beep at you and put itself in Neutral. Holding the power button for a few seconds will not engage the parking system and lock the wheels either.

I HIGHLY recommend getting up over 10 MPH on a road somewhere with nobody behind you and trying it. It could be important someday to know exactly what to do and what to expect when you do it. At the very minimum it will at least remove any lingering fear you might have of somehow accidentally bumping the shift lever or park button while driving. I assure you, you will be pleasantly surprised by the forethought of the engineers when you run the test and find that you still have control over the car.

 

Passed out does not equal asleep.

 

Usually, if someone passes out at the wheel, while that could be falling asleep, it could be other things as well, such as a stroke, heart attack or something like... death, which can happen.

 

I like the idea of B mode to slow down, the hazard lights to alert others around you and then steering to safety until you can get stopped.

 

It seems that your impression is not based on first hand experience.

I have shifted my Prius into reverse at road speed many times, testing it as a response to potential runaway. I haven't done the same with Park, but numerous others here have. Nothing serious happens.

Cut power steering? My Prius has been tested only when parked, but I grew with old Fords that suffered engine stalls at random times, killing power steering and sometimes power brakes. The controls get stiff, but still work with some extra muscle.

In most non-hybrids, turning the ignition off involves the risk of turning the key one notch too far, engaging the anti-theft steering lock and disabling the steering. Prius doesn't have a steering lock, but instead has other anti-theft measures.

 

The impression is definitely not based on first hand experience. Of course, I am not one to play with my life or mess with a car's functions on 'what ifs', especially since this is my first Prius. A lot of it is just practical thinking and based on observations with regards to the vehicle and from experience with my old car which was not 100% by wire, which was the opinion of the Prius' steering, given the lack of feedback to it and the earlier statements about the throttle and braking system also computer controlled.

Also, with power steering and power brakes, I am well aware you have to apply more effort to get them to work, however, to my recollection with regards to those systems, short of losing the fluid, you still had control regardless of power, it was the fluid itself that did the 'transfer'.

Either way, the recommendation has been properly explained.

 

It's perfectly safe. Try it at night sometime on a deserted road. Better to be prepared and know what to do.

The Prius is not 100% by wire. With no power, all the systems still function. This is a federal requirement for road vehicles. There is the normal hydraulic friction brakes as well as the regenerative brakes. The friction brakes take over under heavy braking, at slow speeds, or when there is no power.

There are even capacitor backups by the brakes to provide power brake assist in the event of a failure or accident. When the airbags deploy, the Prius automatically destroys the high voltage battery fuse preventing any possibility of the HV battery being "live" after an accident. In doing so, the inverter shuts down. The system is powered from the 12v, but during the off time or in the event that the 12v is dead/broken as well, there is enough charge stored by each brake to stop the vehicle with power assist still. It is very well designed with many fool-proofs. Another reason why anyone with a half a brain cell knows that "runaway" Prii are myths.

 

If the Prius c driver that has passed out happens to be one of the annoying idiots from the Prius c "Life Game" commercials? I think the protocal should be to hit the accelerator and wait for the merciful crash.

 

B mode does nothing to slow you down. It just determines where any excess energy goes. You can drive around perfectly normally in B, and never notice.