What is going on with my prius? Shifts to neutral and won't move

Okay so I am having a number of problems with my 2007 used prius that I bought last august. It had 84,000 miles on it and I have now driven it up to 105,000 miles.

So for my job I deliver for dominos and deliver packages for amazon. So obviously I rely on it quite a bit. Including for paying my rent, which is due soon.

A couple weeks ago it started displaying the red triangle warning light and check engine light. However, the car was driving fine so in my brilliance decided to ignore it. The warning light would go off after a few hours anyway so I figured maybe it was something inconsequential. But then it would come back on in a day or two. I hardly had any time to take it to the dealership anyway , or money to pay for repairs so decided to rough ride it..

Well fast forward a few weeks and now it is having serious issues. What is happening is the BRAKE light on the left is coming on, then the car shifts into neutral and won't move or shift back into drive. Then I have to turn the car off for a while, but after a couple minutes I turn it back on and it will magically move again! And the warning lights go off again. But then an hour or so later the warning lights will come on again and the BRAKE light might come on again at any time, randomly, and then the car shifts into neutral again and shuts down again.

I've noticed that leaving the car overnight , it will be ready to drive 100+ miles again in the morning before having problems again.

I suspect it is the 12V battery being drained. I have a habit of charging my phone (samsung s7) all day while driving in the car because I use my phone for GPS for work. I also tend to blast music loudly while running AC, and I also run a peripheral Garmin backup GPS. I am wondering if maybe all these electronics are draining the 12V too much. Because last time the car switched to Neutral and died, the lights were dim and the car lock would barely work, I could barely lock or unlock the car which indicates low battery. The battery seems to recharge when I turn off the car and then everything is fine for a while.

So my question is, what do you guys think? I don't think its the hybrid battery as I am still getting 48 MPG with no loss in mileage. I won't have time to take it to the dealership until next week.

Would like some insight here. Thanks.

 

Yeah, I turned the car on - checked the reservoir - no movement except a tiny swirl when first turning the car on.

So if the pump was working correctly there should be constant movement in the reservoir, correct?

Looks like you may have successfully diagnosed my issue, I'm guessing its a fairly common one.

Much better than having a hybrid battery failure.

 

Yeah, the AC wasn't working either when the triangle was on which is why I'm thinking you may be correct on this one.

I'm ordering a new inverter pump plus bluetooth code reader off ebay right now.

I didn't know they read codes for free, I thought it was costly for OBD for some reason

Triangle is off at the moment so they may not show