The Prius has an electronic transmission. From what I read about it last night, it seems the ‘gear selector’ simply tells the computer what you want. The computer then applies an electrical charge to the transmission to make it happen.
I had never heard of such a thing, but it seems plausible that on a Prius, the computer might decide you didn’t really want neutral, and not give it to you.
“The Prius has an electronic transmission. From what I read about it last night, it seems the ‘gear selector’ simply tells the computer what you want. The computer then applies an electrical charge to the transmission to make it happen.”
Its not just the Prius but many Toyotas. Its fly by wire, where the gear shift isnt physically connected to the gearbox anymore. Same may apply to the brake and ignition. I think you are just pushing buttons that suddenly no longer respond.
If the Prius is a ‘fly by wire’ type of vehicle, then I would think if one turned it off and then back on the glitch would clear and the driver would have control again.
And then the GPS Navigation unit says "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that."
How many people here making snide remarks remember the airbus that crashed at a Paris airshow after the computer went whacko and nothing the pilots tried to over-ride it worked... sheesh!!!!!!!
yah...I’ve heard other speculation that it could be an EMI problem too. What if your blackberry ring tone goes off, just as you pass near a power transmission line, going exactly at the shift point from 2nd to 3rd....and so forth. Pick your combination.
The point was that you are asked to turn electronic devices off on an airplane so the EMI doesn’t interfere with the aircraft’s instruments. Why wouldn’t the computer in your car, that is 2 feet away from your cell phone and not even close to being EMI hardened, ( PC, IPos, crackberry, et al); be subject to the same kind of EMI??
Scary prospect if the computer really has that much control over the car....