Do 2020 models have auto engine shut-off?

he means the whole car shuts off after a certain amount of time with no driver input as a safety feature. there is a thread on this somewhere, and a lot of complaining from campers, but i haven't read anything recently.

should be in 'new car features'?

 

Welcome, @upplepop. In a hybrid forum, "engine off" is not anything like "car off." So @Tideland Prius' response is what mine would be, too. The Prius (and all hybrids) has always shut off the engine when the car stops except in special situations.

I guess we need some clarification as to exactly what you mean. I have never seen any mention in Toyota's literature about them shutting off the whole car. If they have started making the entire car shut off automatically, that's going to tick off a lot of campers.

 

found it: @Johnny Cakes

"2019 model: End of comfortable Prius camping"

 

I had to check a couple articles before I found something specific to hybrids. Here it is: Toyota Tech Will Automatically Shut Off Engines, Apply Parking Brakes

The relevant paragraph says, in part:

It seems to me like it would be a simple matter for them to program a "camping" override response to the first warning. I'll bet they don't. For non-campers, it sound pretty nice since there are so many stories here of people forgetting to shut off the car.

 

My Volt has it. The car shuts down after about two hours. IIRC, someone found an override is leaving it in neutral. Possibly this may work on the Prius.

 

Unfortunately, the HV battery on the Prius doesn't charge when the car is in Neutral. That would preclude using that for camping.

 

So, if you hook up an inverter to the battery to run equipment, the ICE won't come on to charge the traction battery back up anymore?

 

Not in Neutral. In fact, there have been many instances reported here where the HV battery was drained simply by putting the car in Neutral to go through a push-through car wash. I don't know the engineering that required designing the car that way, but that has been true of all generations of the Prius - charging occurs in P, D or B only, not in R or N.

 

Oh well, then it looks like camping in the new Prii will require powering the car up every two hours.

 

Maybe Carista could take care of it?

 

Exactly, when in Neutral.

One reason is the need for an emergency disconnect of power flow to the drive wheels in case of an uncommanded and uncontrollable engine surge or runaway.

Back in the old days, there were various mechanical failures (mostly in throttle mechanisms) that sometimes caused full power engine runaways. The immediate solution was simple, just press the clutch pedal to disengage power. The engine might self-destruct, but it won't force a life threatening crash.

Modern electronic controls have greatly reduced these engine runaways, but not eliminated them. Most of the remaining cases are now known to be pilot error, pedal misapplication, but gremlins within the machine are not entirely removed, or at least no proven so. Therefore some form of power flow disengagement is still required:

-- Manual transmissions: Press the clutch and take it out of gear.
-- Automatic transmissions: Shift to Neutral, which takes it out of gear.
-- Toyota HSD which has no gear shifting or complete mechanical disconnect: Shift to Neutral to kill the fields of all the Motor-Generators, rendering them inert.

 

I wonder if anyone has tried blocking the wheels, engaging the emergency brake and then putting the car in Drive and going to sleep for the night. The ICE would come on more frequently than it would in Park, but I expect it would still be off most of the time. Would that violate any local traffic laws? Would it cause the transfer case to overheat? It seems a shame if the Prius could no longer be used for camping because the car completely shuts down after a period of time in Park. I haven't seen anything in Carista that might override something like that.

 

The car also automatically shuts off the engine and radio in the vehicle in the event of a crash! Haha here is proof.... my car totaled video from 2018...

edit: messed up the date.

 

, he didn't even hit the brakes, must have been totally spaced out, just kept right on cruising into the back of your car. Seeing something like that makes me want to avoid going anywhere. That's one instance where Dynamic Cruise Control on his vehicle would have saved an accident.

 

The car held up really well in an accident. Because of the super low rolling resistance tires, the entire car just spun and the impact felt less than a sudden sharp braking attempt. The vehicle held up really well in that accident. I didn't even hit any panels. I was just held in the seat by the seat belts.

If you are scared to be on the road! You should see my stash of dash cam videos. Tons of shitty drivers out there. The worse ones will tailgate you just because you are in a Prius. And if you drive a red one like me, it just makes you a bigger target. =P

 

has anyone actually established whether or not toyota has added this 'feature'?

 

I can't find it on their website -- only in 3rd party magazine articles.