Gen4 no power- how can you put in neutral?

That's fine; the documentation from when I conducted that experiment is what you saw me post in February (linked upthread), which either is or isn't enough to satisfy you, and if it isn't, well, that's exactly why experiment results get reported along with the step-by-step of how anyone else can reproduce the experiment.

There are some experiments that take a lot of time or prep or special equipment to conduct; this one is dead easy. Matter of minutes. The connector A23 mentioned in my instructions is correct for gen 3 (accessed by easy removal of the glove box); anyone reproducing the experiment in a different generation will need to spend a moment with the wiring diagram to find the corresponding connector for their generation, and that'll be the hardest part of the whole thing.

The main reason we haven't seen some other PriusChat members already reproduce it might be that they haven't seen a need, not generally suspecting me of faking experiment results. But if you do, that's totally fine; the whole point of including the repro instructions with the results is to make it clear that anyone wishing to check my work for any reason is cheerfully invited to do so.

Under the circumstances, I'd be happy if a few more members felt like reproducing it and reporting their own results. That still may not satisfy you personally, given your past history of even rejecting independent, corroborating reports from multiple members on another topic. Nevertheless, it would be of service to others reading this thread, who right now have little more to go on than whether they think you or I sound more convincing.



Edit: strictly speaking, the experiment that I reported in February involved first unplugging the Park actuator and then powering off the car while already rolling (long-pressing the power button to force off).

I spoke upthread of another approach, unplugging the Park actuator and then immediately powering the car off while stationary, then just rolling the powered-off car. I did it that way, too, around the same time in February, but might not have reported it then. Anyone wanting to reproduce the experiment could use either approach, or both.

If you start with the car stationary and powered off in neutral, and then push to get it rolling, you'll notice your first push has to be a little extra hard. As outlined upthread in post #12, you could use the length and force of that extra starting push as a rough way to estimate the value of the capacitor circled in green.



Doing that (and then comparing the estimate to the cap's labeled value) would be a fun addition to the experiment, which I might return to someday, time permitting.

 

It's just not worth it.
Seeya.

 

The well-prepared tow driver usually shows up with options in case a car can't be gotten out of Park.

 

That might allow the shifter to go into neutral, but the car will not safely coast in neutral.
The car can be towed for short distances at low speed when the car is in READY mode and operating normally.
The approved way to tow a Prius is either on a flatbed or with dollies under the drive wheels.