Hill hold

Yep, I have had to use it several times. It beats having to hold the brake and press the gas at the same time to start out from a stop light on an incline. The only thing is that it will disengage after a certain amount of time if you don't start moving ahead.

 

I discovered "hill assist" from PriusChat too. It's a great feature. I'm under the impression that once Hill Assist is set you have just a few seconds once you take your foot off the brake. I might be wrong about that timing, but I remember reading in the manual that there's a timing issue.

 

I'll sometimes use the Hill Assist if I know I won't be moving for a while.

Hill Assist will remain engaged as long as you keep some pressure on the brake pedal. It will disengage about 2 seconds after ALL pressure is released from the brake pedal, or as soon as you touch the accelerator.

 

I use the Hill assist often, although in Illinois, there is very little need for it as there are not too many hills in the Chicago area. That said, I use it most often when I'm the first car at a red light, and I want to ensure that I do not lurch forward (into a red light camera intersection) when the turn lane goes green. Many times, I've lifted my foot off the brake as this occurs, and I will not budge due to the Hill Start Assist being activated. I know it's saved me a lot of tickets, as they are very sensitive around here (if I inch forward, I get a $100 ticket).

It's timed to release after 2 seconds, which is generally long enough to move your foot from brake to gas when on a real hill.