Shifting into neutral

Because it takes a bit of effort and draws your attention away, momentarily, from safety operating a motor vehicle in traffic.

 

As opposed to shifting the car into neutral, which is illegal in most states. It does take some effort, which is probably the key here.

 

For me, adjusting the gas peddle takes less effort and attention than moving the shifter, and remembering that it is in Neutral, not ready to provide propulsion if some sudden situational change needs it.

Mind you, I do regularly use real N in another household car with manual transmission. But that effort and attention seems needless in the Prius.

 

I use " N " all the time, going down a long hill; if my battery level is full.

If I get going to fast, I'll put it back into " D " to slow down, pressing the brake sometimes.

It works for me!!

 

attention to put the car in Neutral? really? it is that complicated... propulsion for situational changes, it ain't a motorcycle where you need to give full throttle, nor will you need to add gas or dead stick to a forced landing. it takes a second to shift into D. You make it sound like you are doing an IFR approach to KSMO

 

Is it really that complicated to adjust the gas pedal?

That is three or four times longer than it takes to modulate the gas pedal.

 

Sometimes it looks like Toyota put it in neutral when you look at the list of simple and fixable things that Prius owners complain about.

 

my only complaint about the Neutral is that i need to think before i engage the car back in drive. The idiots at Toyota put R reverse where 1st gear would normally be in a manual transmission. Not sure what would happen at 75 miles if i stuck the car into reverse? probably not a good thing?

 

I would have said "no worries" on the assumption that the computer was probably designed to be fool-proof with regard to putting the car into the wrong gear at any speed...

But that was before I accidentally hit the "park" button before the car came to a complete stop, and it came to such a jarring halt, I thought the airbag might blow.

 

Depends on the particular transmission. In the very common 'three on the tree' pattern, 'R' and '1' match the Prius 'R' and 'D'. This subject appears in many many PriusChat threads.

'Beep-beep --> Neutral'.

No problem, the computer won't allow anything serious here. Hitting 'P' at highway speed does the same. I've done both many times, as practice in case the mythical 'Sudden Unintended Acceleration' appears.

How fast were you actually moving? Others who have tested the speed threshold for actually going into Park indicate that at its max speed, it is jarring, but not nearly enough to break the transmission's parking pawl (very strong), nor fire airbags.

 

Seriously? Yeesh.

Funnily enough, I was just wondering on my commute this morning what would happen if I accidentally did that...

 

US Federal law, try to follow these rules, you will find only B's position can be blamed on "idiots at Toyota".
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2011-title49-vol6/pdf/CFR-2011-title49-vol6-sec571-102.pdf
"neutral position shall be located between forward drive and reverse drive positions"
"movement from neutral position to forward drive position shall be clockwise. If the transmission shift lever sequence includes a park position, it shall be located at the end, adjacent to the reverse drive position. "
So going clockwise around the steering wheel, you HAVE to see P R N D, and indeed Toyota does that. B must exist but it's location is not mandated. (but it cant be at the P end)
"In vehicles having more than one forward transmission gear ratio, one forward drive position shall provide a greater degree of engine braking than
the highest speed transmission ratio at vehicle speeds below 40 kilometers per hour (25 miles per hour)."

Feel free to meet the law with any other configuration.

 

I know this isn't specific to the Prius, but my first car was a (hand me down) 1969 Toyota Corolla stick. There was this long hill I used to drive down, probably a few miles. Well one day i decided to shift into neutral. No problem at first, other than i wasn't able to use the engine to brake. (slow down by gearing). Well as the brakes heated up and faded. I tried to shift into gear.
Nothing at all, some light grinding but it wouldn't go in to gear!. While this car may not have had synchronized gearing i really don't know, but i had to pull over very carefully into the emergency lane. After running over all kinds of junk for probably half a mile. I swore I'd never do that again.
Now i realize the Prius is a totally different beast. My bravery, at trying this stunt again is all gone. In gear it stays... Just like with my Harley, i always let the engine and gears do the work to slow down and be in the proper gear.

 

At some point, we'll come to the realization that in order to move ourselves down the road a few miles, we must consume the energy equivalent of using dozens of hair-dryers.

 

^^ alexcue

This is why it was prohibited several generations ago. Cars have improved greatly since then, but runaway risk remains, especially for heavier vehicles.

This is also not a reasonable use of Neutral gliding for hypermiling. Anytime a downhill slope descent is fast enough to need brakes, the engine must also be in gear, mostly for safety to prevent brake overheating and getting trapped in neutral, unable to re-engage the transmission.

But it also saves fuel in modern engines, cutting off the fuel normally needed to keep it idling. There is no sense burning any fuel to keep the engine spinning at idle at the same time any braking effect is needed and brake pads are being worn down.

Neutral coasting should be restricted to shallow slopes, where brakes are not needed to maintain reasonable speed but being in the highest gear causes some unwanted slowdown from engine drag. For my cars, this usually means slopes of 1-2%, maybe a bit more at higher speeds in other rigs with higher drag. On the 5-7% downslopes, staying in gear is essential.

Some drivers are just not going to get it right. And if an officer can see or hear that you are neutral gliding, you are doing it wrong.

 

Judging from You Tube, the risk of a runaway from pressing the gas pedal instead of the brake is still a major cause of accidents.

 

Are you sure that the engine is still getting fuel when you are coasting down-hill and the engine is being used for braking? I should think that the fuel-injection computer should be giving the engine no fuel if the engine is turning faster than it should be for a given throttle-setting.

 

What a can of worms. There are strong feelings both ways about coasting and we are reading every assorted detail.
Anyone that wants to coast should coast, and not because someone else told them this or that about it.
and be able to share their expeience with others. imo anyways, whatever.
will glide or stealth mode shut down regenerative braking and injectors?
is there ever a time these days or nights when I80 leaving Tahoe is dry with little to no traffic?
Shifting to n on the flat gives a much different experience then just leaving in d will give on the flat,
no matter what you do with the gas foot. And the experience will be different at different speeds.
Thank god I'd read to put it back in d before braking, it just makes sense to me from what I've experienced previosly
with other coasting experiments.
It's not something I would do during rush or other heavy traffic scenarios, but I want to know how the car works
and heavy traffic is not very conducive to learning how this vehicle was meant to be driven.
as always
YMMV
your opinions may vary as well, sobeit.

 

How you choose to dissipate potential energy is your own choice; the energy spent accelerating the car, is released again when the car slows down. When the car decelerates, it dissipates that energy, either by friction with the road, the air, the engine compression or the brake-pads. In the case of a hybrid, some of that energy goes into a battery.

I like that it's not completely wasted when it goes into a battery.

 

next you know someone will try coasting uphills in both d and n just to see what the difference is.