Something horrible happened today!

I think you are in the ACC and Ig-On state. If you press power without stepping on the brake fully, you will be in ACC state. You press power one more time, you'll be in Ig-On state (orange light on power button). Press power again will shut off the car. So next time, just remember to press on the brake fully when you want to start.

 

I'll second that diagnosis. Did you notice if the display said you were in "Ready" mode when you tried to put it in gear?

 

I had pretty much the same thing happen a while back.It was as ScottY says above. In my case I was messing around with CDs and when I went to start, I did have my foot on the brake. It went thru the same sequence you described. Now I remember the foot and it hasn't happened since.

Hopefully yours is the same thing.

 

I've done the exact same thing. It wasn't in "Ready" state since I didn't depress the brake enough when I hit the Start button.

 

Not stepping on the brake hard enough will indeed confuse/lockup the system.

It's documented in the User-Guide to remind people and hopefully prevent panic.

From that experience, you now have a heightened awareness. That should do the trick.

 

Simple-- just remember to press the brake pedal, and it's no worries! Otherwise, both user and Prius get very, very confused--it's happened to me also!

 

And your brake light was on because it turns on ALL the dash signals on when you start the car (so you can tell if something's burned out) and they all go off after about 2 seconds.

 

yep was in ignition mode. maybe a change, but my Prius does not have a steering wheel lock on it in any mode.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA @ Jun 6 2006, 01:43 AM) [snapback]266519[/snapback]</div>

Without the electric assist on the steering, it may feel as if the wheel is locked.

Tom

 

This happened to my wife the first time she took the Prius somewhere without me. She called me on her cellphone, all in a panic, because the car wouldn't go into drive. She had been sitting in the car, eating her lunch, and evidently hit the power button without putting her foot on the brake first, or quickly enough. I simply told her to power down, put her foot on the brake, and power up again. All was good this time! She actually had it happen to her again one time, but remembered what I told her before, and cycled through it again with no problems.