At home, I park my 06 Prius in a garage with a level floor. Normally I do not lock the car or use the park (foot) brake. Today, with key in pocket, when Iwent to drive my car it beeped at me even before I touched it. It was one continuous beep lasting about 10 seconds. It obviously sensed the key in my pocket. I could not imagine why it beeped but to make sure it was not a door completely closed I open and closed the back hatch and back door on the drivers side. Both seemed to be fully closed but I cycled them anyway. Besides the driver's door, these two doors were the only ones opened since I last drove the car. I got in and expected the worst such as a flat battery or display troubles but all seemed OK. The car had not been left on, the battery had 4 blue bars and the display worked perfectly. There were no trouble lights or warning messages. The only abnormal thing was that long beep. The car drove normally and did not beep again. Can anyone suggest what the beep was for?
Could you have accidentally hit one of the buttons on the fob in your pocket? I've had that happen before, and have my Prius unexpectedly beep at me. Tom
Assuming that you didn't hit any buttons on the fob, I would guess that someone tried to steal your Prius. I remember that, with my old minivan, when I disarmed/unlocked it with remote, it flashed different light sequences to give warnings. Just a guess, of course. You certain can try to to reproduce it if you could do so "quietly".
To start with, the car was locked in a garage so stealing is out. I doubt that one of the fob buttons was pressed - it would have had to be the unlock button otherwise the car would have locked and it wasn't locked.
If a door was slightly ajar (usually the hatch, and it's hard to tell) and you hit the lock button (intentionally or accidentally) the car will beep at you for 10 seconds and it won't lock. That's probably what happened. This is one of the reasons I always lock my car, even when I might not need to. It reduces the chance of coming back to a dead car after the cargo area light stayed on all night because I didn't completely close the hatch. That cargo mat loves to slide back just far enough to keep it from latching.
I tried an experiment this morning to see if I could duplicate the circumstances that caused to 10 second beep. I tried holding the lock and then the unlock button while walking up to the drivers door and got the correct response of the car locking or unlocking (although it was not locked). I cracked the hatch and tried again. By holding the lock button on the fob the car beeped at me for 10 seconds. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that the original beep was caused by me not completely closing the hatch and loose change in my pocket pressing on the fob lock button. EDIT: I posted before I received you message, brick. I always leave the cargo area light switched off but even so, always locking the car sounds like a good idea.
