New way to stop the Prius

A car dealer told me that the car will keep running, just beep at you the whole time... never tried it myself, but it seems like if the fob battery died while it was in the car, the car would keep working.

 

The car will continue to run but once turned off or ran out of gas you would be stranded.

 

As an adder to this, if you want to try this experiment anyway, be sure to put a big a** tag on your keys so you can find them again. They are expensive to replace

 

Yes, I have tried walking away from my car while it was still in "Ready" carrying the fob. The car complains a lot! It "beeps " all over the place. It DOES NOT LIKE that. But it does not turn off until YOU turn it off.

 

Yes, car will keep running. Actually, people have accidentally gotten out of their car with it in ready mode (meaning running), gone in to the house for the night, come out in the morning and their car is still in ready mode. The car will still be functioning, although the ICE will come on occasionally to keep the traction battery charged. It will beep at you when you get out, but if you are hard of hearing or in a noisy environment you may not hear it.

 

As stated above, the key fob is only needed for starting the car, not running it. It will run indefinitely without the key fob once started. Of course, without the fob you won't be able to restart it once powered off.

This has led to a few embarrassing situations where someone has dropped off a spouse and continued to another city, only to learn that the fob was in the possession of the spouse: "Honey, can you come and get me, or perhaps overnight the keys?"

Tom

 

My 06' beeps three times when I walk away into the store for a min, in park but ready, always in sight of course. Then when I come back it stays quiet and ready. Actually the only warning is the drivers seatbelt blinking I noticed, but when you get in again it all goes away. Have not tried to walk any farther than 50' but through a wall. That's interesting that it could drive off very far as long as they don't shut down or run out of gas. I have the security package, will look in manual for capabilities..

 

On my 2010, I get the three beeps plus I get an error message on the MID that says "Key Not Detected" when I get outside of the car. The car does continue to run.

 

Yes. Someone can get in it and drive it across the country without the key.

Tom

 

Long as you don't shut it off, it will keep running without the fob any place close.... done it a few times.