How to stop a runaway Prius

The fastest and easiest way is to press the "P" button. It's right in front of you, easy to see, easy to get at. If you are moving over about 2-3 MPH the car will go into "N". If you are not moving the car will lock the drive train.
The engine will drop to idle. BTW, -most- Prius will drop the engine to idle if you press hard enough on the brakes to light the brake lights. There is some indication that some don't do this, but that is to be tested.

The Highlander Hybrid should function the same. It's the same "Hybrid Synergy Drive".
But your best bet is to try it -before- you get a jammed pedal.

 

When I heard the report on the radio this morning, I decided to try to see if it would go into neutral while accelerating. YES IT WILL!!! I floorboarded my 2007 Prius, held it to the floor as hard as I could while running down the highway @ 60+ MPH and threw it into neutral. **** IT WENT INTO NEUTRAL!! with no problem at all. The hybrid engine will not over-rev when it is put into neutral, it actually revs down. I did it twice just to be sure, yep, worked again. Try to rev your engine while in park, it won't rev quickly or very high. As far as shutting it off..... I haven't tried it, but push AND HOLD the power button to shut it down, don't just push it quickly or repeatedly push it. Anyway, imho the yesterdays incident is a load of stuff. I have had my 2007 Prius 2years and 9 months and 68k miles and had no problems other than it eating tires. Also we have had a 2008 Camry HYbrid for 2 years and 28k miles and no problems whatsoever, ... BUT they recalled it and put in an ugly black rubber floor mat and cut off the bottom of my gas pedal. My nice carpeted mat went back in when I got home, as did my heavy rubber winter mat.

Well, now that I have ranted, I have NO PROBLEM with MY Toyotas!!

 

I haven't tried powering off the prius while driving via holding the power button in (does this work at speed?), but does anybody know what would happen to the skid ECU (the braking computer) if the car lost power like this? I'm okay with the lack of power steering, especially at speed, but the loss of brakes would be bad.

-edit- Thanks for testing putting the car into neutral and revving it. My lady is actually the Prius driver and I have no way of testing this stuff out without tipping her off that I have concerns about this

 

Replace Toyota logo with GM one. And will not run away anymore. :cheer2:

 

How to stop a runaway Prius? Drag your feet.

 

Ogo, this was an interesting post with good following observations, till your crude comment. When thirty five or so people die driving Toyota's your post is out of line. May your Toyota always stop and perform as designed and not perform as other runaway Toyota's have.

 

To put it into neutral, you do have to hold it there for a second or so. Bumping it doesn't work, you need to hold it for a short time then it kicks to neutral. I've tried it with both a 2005 and 2009 while full out accelerating, and at various other throttle positions and it always went into neutral.

 

I like the Park button method best.

 

Perhaps you didn't hold it in N. Shifting to N works even when accelerating.

Pressing Park is the quickest method.

Tom

 

You could wait for it to run out of fuel?

But then again, you could have a long wait

 

Can someone tell me? Does applying emergency brake while stepping on regular brake stop a runaway prius?

 

My little runaway...

 

What if it isn't the cars' fault these people died?

How many people died driving Fords, Chryslers, & GMs?

 

No. The parking brake is designed to hold a stopped car so it is very weak.

 

Well, that is great news. I will have to try something similar
But, everything was working properly. Who knows what will happen if there are gremlins in the computer and auto accelerates; will it behave as you indicated or have a mind of its own.
That is the question.
Have you tried that 'Parking' button method? That too may not work when the gremlins are at it.

Doesn't need much pedal movement to light the break light.
Thanks for that great feedback. I need to test this too. Hope it will respond properly when the emergency happens. Obviously that guy stepped on the breaks and nothing disengaged.

 

Your point is taken, but it's pure speculation. You might as well speculate that the gas tank will spontaneously explode. That the wheels might fall off. That the electric-power steering suddenly decides to reverse the sense of left and right.

If the runaway situation occurs, these are the techniques that should work. If you're worried that they might not, you should leave the car in the garage.

 

Rofl !!!!! I spit all over my keyboard b/c this comment.

 

well thats some info to know. I had no idea you need to old the shifter in neutral for over 2 seconds to get the motor to spool down, then apply braking.

I'm not to worried about sudden acceleration..but if it does happen at least i wont be like mr. Sikes