Senior use: can the car ever roll away other than Neutral?

It can drive away if you leave it in Drive and get out. Actually it is safer than many normal pushbutton engine cars today with a mechanical shifter. Just pressing the Power button to turn it off automatically shifts the car into Park. My turbo CRV with pushbutton start and a conventional shifter will roll if it is shutdown in gear.

From the beginning of car time, it is smart to use the emergency brake if you are parking on a slope of any kind. The "park" mechanism in any car is just a small piece of metal sticking into a gear or other rotating part inside the transmission or transaxle. Not nearly as strong as the emergency brakes.

Like any new thing, the Prius shifter becomes auto pilot after a short time. Most people find a Prius easier to drive than most cars with its easy power steering, strong power brakes and generally quiet power.

 

In neutral, it can roll away without power. In forward and reverse gears, it can drive away with power.

It of course uses audible warnings and dash messages to warn if the door is opened except in Park.

But this Jeep apparently had all the same kinds of warnings, so they must not be always enough.

Vehicle Blamed For 'Star Trek' Actor's Death Was Subject Of Recall : The Two-Way : NPR

 

i would avoid senior use (defining that as mentally impaired to some extent)

we have had people here get out of the car and watch it drive away

at 66, i find myself less aware, and having more and more 'senior moments'

i'm still aware enough to recognize them, but the day is probably coming...

most seniors don't drive enough to warrant a hybrid anyway, and repairs can be particularly onerous for them.

 

(A) Then they should consider not driving.

Not unless you also forget to turn the car off, which places the car into Park. (See "A", above)
There's a little pawl in the transaxle that "should" keep the car from rolling away once it's in park......BUT....(see below....)

Not always.
Over time, parking pawls can become damaged, or other things can cause the vehicle not to be placed into "park" when the occupant gets out and walks away. Almost always these "things" occupy the space between the seat and the steering wheel.

This is why every driver's education class, and every state-issued driving manual mentions something I like to call........a parking brake.

That's a pretty good name for these devices, and even if you have a car with a particularly poorly designed foot-activated parking brake or yet another "push button" activated parking brake - they all work very effectively to keep your car from wandering off, if they are properly used....which is mostly to say......used at all.
My company requires that the parking brake be set.
Every trip.
Every time.
The test that our safety bullies use to see if the parking brake is properly applied is to get into the vehicle, start the car, put it into "D" and see if the car moves.
Parking brakes are specifically designed to keep the car from moving out under its own power if you accidently leave it in drive and walk away from it.


It's not just seniors who forget.
Our engineers used to use Priuses as their fleet cars, and one night I rolled up on an office to see a G3 Prius emitting that familiar blue glow from its interior, in an otherwise unoccupied building.
The last person who used the car had forgotten to turn it off, BUT they knew enough to put the car in park and apply the parking brake.
The Prius had been sitting happily in the parking lot, idling and unlocked.....for hours.

Since I try to be a nice, responsible person mindful of our planet's dwindling resources......I immediately moved the car to a reserved space in another parking lot, shut it down, set the parking brake, manually locked it and walked away...CONFIDENT in the knowledge that this mystery would never be solved.

If it hadn't been 0300 at the time and if I could have found an accomplice.....I would have transferred the car to another office.
Entertainment is where you find it.

 

I don't equate Senior with early onset Alzheimer's but some do. A lady I knew was driving her 08 Prius until she passed at 90.

In her eighties she was taking friends on cross country trips in the car. Your senility may vary.

 

Not in a G3, IIRC.....but "power" mode, isn't.
It doesn't make any more power, but rather it only changes the throttle response.

 

Yes I hate to say a while back my elderly mother got confused and reversed into a building. Insurance paid in excess of $14k to repair the damage, after which my mother never wanted to drive again.

moto g(7) power ?

 

Or on flat ground too. That has saved my Prius from quietly rolling away in D several times, when other people issue multiple urgent interrupts and distract from the car's warning beeps. (I readily admit to being less able to multitask than most other people believe they can themselves, and frequently insist that I should too.)

I had understood the Prius parking pawl to be quite robust, and can readily withstand being dragged by a tow truck. I've experienced numerous parking brakes considerably less strong.

 

Well put.

 

True dat! When a 2000 Jeep Cherokee battering ram made our 2006 Prius half as long as it was a split second earlier, it totally smushed the 12V battery. No easy way to disengage the parking pawl. The towtruck driver just dragged it up onto the flatbed and the front tires slid all the way.

 

That beeping when you're in reverse, 2~3 times I've lost track of being in reverse. I guess my brain just doesn't equate a beep with being in reverse. Luckily didn't plow in to anything (or one). To the best of my fuzzy recollection, I never lost track with an old school shifter.

 

Good point. I turned off the constant beeping which may or may not have contributed to the accident. (Probably a second or two to accelerate to such speed/force).

moto g(7) power ?

 

Yeah... I've disabled the reverse beep a couple times, but have come to learn that a beep warning me I'm in neutral is more tolerable than hitting the gas ready to move forward but forgetting I was still in reverse.

As for seniors getting confused... Practicing redundancy as a matter of habit is wise. For example, I always out of habit hit the parking break with my foot every time I hit the park button. That way If I forget one of those two I still have a chance when I'm hella old some day.

 

After having multiple times forgotten to turn off the car when I leave the vehicle, I've trained myself to just press power off. Power off will automatically shift to park. I don't consider myself an old dog but I was unable to consistently press park and press power when I leave the car. This seemed like an easy one step compromise. I also told my dad to do this when I gave him the Prius.

 

Recently a 91 year old man here killed a professor with his car while the professor was on his bike. The 91 year old was only sentenced to a year in jail. Not his first offense either.

 

a member here did just that. Pulled over to clear debris off the road and then saw his car was going down the road, the feller chased it and no one was hurt....this time.

 

Losing track (or missing the intended slot) on an old school shifter is within my talent basket. Especially when including all the agricultural equipment I occasionally operate. When even different vintages of the same item (dad has three F250s) have different shift patterns, it should be no surprise that the other items have differing patterns too.

But at least with manual transmissions, the clutch reflex usually renders these errors inconsequential.

 

i am going to describe a theoretical but extremely unlikely scenario where your Prius can roll away when powered off without first hitting P.

The parking pawl in a Prius (all gens so far as I know) is activated by a small motor that is on the outside of the transaxle case. When you put it in P or power off, the electric motor rotates to force the pawl into the power split device. If your 12 volt battery were so dead that it could not power that motor, (constant jump starting would be needed if it were that dead) your car could be off but not in P