Sudden jolt - shudder experienced

I suspect at least in part they're a cost-cutting measure. Our son's CX-5 has electric parking brake; I've driven the car multiple times, and still can't reliably tell if the damn thing's on or off, how to activate/deactivate. Plus there's a chicken-dance required if you're pushing back the rear calipers for a pad replacement.

 

Meh, electronics cost more than a piece of bicycle brake cable.

It was done partly because people never use parking brakes unless they are electronic, even though they should for safety and legal reasons?

And I feel the Gen 5 Prius is technologically obsolete compared to the newest $15,000 Chinese EVs.

 

Some people in freeze zones don't like using parking brakes, because they can lock-up in the clamped position and won't let loose unless you heat up the hubs. Plastic hub caps a BIG no-no when you try to apply heat to free them up.
I leave a manual tranny in gear or let the car roll a bit to engage the parking paw whenever I'm in Tahoe with snow on the ground. The rest of the time I use my parking brakes.

 

Any time your gas engine turns off it could happen... Perhaps it happens more often when car gets older? Or at least that's my experience...

 

I wonder if frozen parking brakes is a problem of long ago that's specific to drum brakes and is not an issue in newer cars? I mean maybe with Gen2 Prius because they have rear drum brakes? But Gen3 and newer Prius have all wheel disc brakes and can't imagine moisture freezing in a way that would affect disc brakes?

 

They also save weight.

One thing drums are better at than discs is as parking brakes. To ensure discs stay clamped when parked requires additional systems. What was once common was to have a mini drum brake in the rear disc ones. You might have drums, and not know it.

The electric brake might also ensure the rotors stay clamped to the disc.

 

Have defo pressed the on-off button w/o being in Park, but usually the parking brake catches the car before it rolls anywhere (short of a rural Seattle driveway cut into a hill, or SF). Thing is, the system has to do catch up, because it's the responsibility of the idiot driver to place the car in Park, then hit the on-off button

But sort of conflate this with the big 'squonk' the brakes make whenever getting off them to hit the accelerator at a light: the electric parking brake's a screw mechanism, and that takes time to develop enough pressure to hold the car in place -- need to hold the hydraulic brakes until it engages and stop whining. Many, many times I've been a bit impatient to get out, and let off the brake pedal before the parking brake grabs. This results in a bit of roll, as all gearing in the eCVT and axles must have lubricant clearances, which stack and allow a bit of movement.

To have the parking brake then clamp down on this situation can stress bearings over time... so I restart the car, put it in R (which disengages the parking brake), roll a bit backwards, then D back to the original spot, press P (which reengages parking brake) with my foot still on the brake pedal, then hit the power button.

Same difference as why I don't like to back into a parking stop (the polymer / waster rubber ones bolted to the floor to stop wall or other structure contact by majority underpracticed-and-proud-of-it drivers) then set the parking brake -- always roll couple inches off the stop, then set brake. Suspensions are isolated from the chassis with usually OEM rubber bushings; these can and do conform to regular impacts / compressions, and can erode alignment (and prevent you keeping it), parking by habitually bashing into these things then e-braking atop them