Many of you fellow Prius drivers may know this, or may have tried it on your own, I had been curious about it but found out by accident last night;

What happens if you leave the car running (in Park and with parking brake on) and exit the car with your smart key?

Last night we were returning from dinner on the mainland, across the causeway to Galveston Island, and pulled up to a fiercely burning vehicle that blocked the causeway together with another vehicle it had collided with. I pulled to a stop in the right lane but not on the very narrow emergency strip, with flashers on, mostly to make sure cars from behind would slow down and stop, and also to have light onto the cars in front. Put car in P and parking brake on, and ran over to the vehicles to first make sure no one was stuck inside burning car and second see if anyone needed help. Those left in the Prius were calling 911 in the meantime, as I'm sure others were as well. Luckily everyone got out of the burning vehicle, although unfortunately a 2 year old child was injured to an undetermined extent. Apparently a car with a family of 5 had a flat and had pulled over to change the tire, and another car with a single occupant barreled into them at probably at least 60 mph. The emergency strip on that part of the 3 lane (per side) bridge is less than the width of a car, so cars that are stuck protrude into the right lane.
Anyway, I got stuck on the upwind side of the burning car helping the injured, and could not make it back to the downwind Prius since at that point the whole causeway appeared to be on fire from leaking gas, with bad smoke and flames. On the other side in the meantime one of my friends was trying to clear a way for emergency vehicles that would shortly arrive, and some young kids helped her out to hustle cars over to the sides and clear a center lane. My car was in the very front and also had to be moved to the side, and luckily - I had not thought about this when dashing off to check on the burning vehicle and injured - another friend of mine was able to drive the Prius closer to the side.

So, the answer is: yes, if left on without the smart key nearby, the Prius still drives. I assume if you turn it off though, it cannot be restarted. Good thing I had not turned it off, or it would have blocked the access lane. As it turns out, most of the emergency vehicles did approach against driving direction from the blocked off side - a trooper on the other side must have radiod the fire engines to go that way, which was much shorter. Overall emergency crews had excellent response, the first police car was on the scene within about 3-4 minutes, and the first fire engine within about 10 minutes.

Another thing I learned from the incident: if having a flat on such a road (causeway, bridge) without a wide enough emergency lane, I would probably try to continue driving even if on a rim, and even if the rim or suspension get wrecked, just to make it off the bridge onto a safer spot where to change the tire. My previous car (03 MINI Cooper S) had runflat tires which were very stiff and uncomfortable, but in a situation like last night would have prevented the accident from happening.

I admire and am grateful to emergency crews (fire, police, EMS...), they do an amazing job!
Drive safely!
M

 

True! the car, once "booted up" doesn't care if the key stays inside the car (in your pocket) or not, though my '04 beeps at me if i walk away with the key without turning it off. if the start button is pressed, turning off the car, it, of course, can't be restarted without the key.

i also found that if you exit the powered-up car with the key in your pocket, the automatic door-unlocks don't work, either, meaning that if you need to open the hatch, you have to turn off the car, and that's annoying!

and i still love the car!

 

Alan, it's supposed to be annoying. I've accidentally left my car on before because the engine was off and I thought I had shut the car down (though I didn't). The Prius wants to make sure you realize the car's still on.

 

The 06 beeps as well, if you walk away with the key and the ignition is on.

 

ok, LOL...

i guess the prius is one of the few cars you can forget to turn off when you leave... something about the engine already being off....

 

**The 04' Beeps when you step away from the car**

I have found this out Myself, I stopped to help a woman stuck in her car at an accident in 1998 . I pulled to the side and turned on my hazard flashers while out helping I hear a brief skid then bam, someone slammed into the rear of my truck(totaled) and that guy did not have ins.

From that point on I have a yellow 360* strobe light in each vehicle that I own, that plugs into my lighter and sticks on the roof for flats or accidents and easly tucks away for storage..

This has saved me more than a dozen times now.( as the other drivers see it long before they see the hazard/blinker lights on the car)
the strobe cost me $35.00 from jc whitney & only pulls 1.5 amps,
I wouldn't suggest getting any color other than yellow/amber (means caution) .

**Blue, Red & Green are normally reserved for public safety (police, fire) using these colors could get you arrested** ..

Others may disagree, But this has saved my vehicle and my person from some very close calls..

 

amen, and others may also agree, wholeheartedly. don't leave home without one!
+af

 

If you are in that situation you do not need to turn off the car to get the hatch released. Just press the unlock button on a front door and the hatch will be set to open.

Or rather I'm pretty sure of this. I suppose I'll have to test it out again. It has been a few months since I've had the need to have the hatch open while I was in the vehicle.

 

I tell everybody that I know, never change a tire on the highway for the very reason described in this thread. Even if it means ruining your rim, get off the highway. The reason, why risk your life over something that can be replaced.

 

Also, and this may seem counterintuative, try using the fob to lock the doors from the outside. That will automatically unlock all doors and the hatchback... at least on my 06.

To lock it and walk away, roll down the driver window, get out, close the door and reach in through the open window to hit the inner door lock switch. Then hit the auto-roll-up for the window and voila! locked car while on with fob in pocket. One important note here is, make very sure you have the key in the fob. The key is the ONLY way back into the car that I've found. The buttons on the fob do not work when the car is in this state nor do the buttons on the handles or the fob detectors (think they're called occilators).

Now, why you would want to do this... well, that's another thread on FE.