I am recent TCH owner and I had a strange experience that is not explained in the owner's manual. Here is what happened: Instead of pressing the brake and staring, my wofe started it just by pushing the 'Power' button twice. As I understand, pressing the power button twice puts the car in the ACC mode. However, when put on Reverse, the car did start moving! Only when the car was later put on 'Drive', it complained that the car must be started by pressing the brake. Is this normal? I browsed the owner's manual, and it does not mention anything about being able to reverse the car when it is truly not 'Ready'.

 

Hmmm, I'm gonna have to try that. Was she parked on a hill when this happened? I'm not a car tech, but I'm guessing if she wasn't in park, and the parking brake wasn't on - that the car was just rolling. In other words, it wasn't in "Reverse" per se, but it wasn't in gear either.

 

The car was parked in our garage and it is flat. However, the driveway is downhill. What surprised me is that how did it got out of the driveway! I tried the exact set of events and the results were identical. You press the brake when you put it on reverse. However, you never go through the combination of pressing the brake and the Power switch simultaneously. Has this anything to do with the fact that the brake was pressed and the shift was changed to the reverse? The parking brake was not on.

 

On the TCH the gear shift lever only does two things. It moves a switch that tells the computer what position the shift lever is in. It also disengages the parking pawl when you move it out of park.

Just like the Prius the car has no transmission per se. When the car isn't running it is essentially in neutral. The parking pawl is the ONLY thing keeping it from rolling.

Unless there is some problem with the car, you simply *rolled* down your driveway.

You could prove that by stepping on the accelerator next time and see if it speeds up. Also when you get to the end of your driveway try driving down the block a way in "reverse". Bet you can't!

 

Simple, apply the park brake, I think that is what it is made for.

 

Well pressing the button twice without depressing the brake doesn't put you into ACC mode (one press does that) but rather IG-ON mode. IG-ON mode is EXACTLY like READY mode but the HSD is not on. So putting the car in reverse, neutral, drive will allow the car to roll either forward or reverse depending on the pitch of the pavement.
Bottom line: Your car is working as designed.

FWIW: You can put the car into IG-ON mode while in motion even while tooling down the expressway at 55 mph. Just press the POWER button for 5 seconds and "Poof" your gliding down the road with the HSD disengaged. This option is documented in the owners manual and is meant to be used only in emergencies (like a fire etc.) and not a method of saving fuel. I never tried it and don't know if you can get back into READY mode while still in motion. Anyone want to try?

 

Thanks for the heads up. Your explanation seems to fit my observation very well. Is this documented in the service or the owner's manual?