Repost from Reddit; and then a question

This appears to have been the source: archived Reddit post

You've posted questions about neutral at length in other threads, and repeated some of them here, but conveniently for this thread, no more than the first seven words of your question are needed to answer it.

As a quick review of the reposted reddit post confirms: the car was not going into neutral. Not 'truly' going into neutral, not falsely going into neutral, not in any other way going into neutral. You move the shifter left and hold it to select neutral, and the driver didn't do that, so neutral wasn't selected.

Here's that text again.

The car went forward in the first paragraph, because it had already been in D, and then the driver didn't select N, so the car was in D, and went forward.

The car went backward in the second paragraph because the driver had shifted to R "to reengage the tow", and then didn't select N, so the car was in R, and went backward.

Finally, in the third paragraph, they remembered how to select N, and when they did that, the car rolled freely with the tow just like yours or mine does in N.


For what it's worth, I think the Reddit poster exaggerated the length of time you need to hold the shifter left to select N. I have never put a stopwatch on it, but I think it is much closer to 1 second than 3.

Amusingly, the exact wording in my 2010 owners' manual is Keep the shift lever in "N" for a while after you shift it to that position.

So now we know the precise answer: a while.

 

It would be great for a few readers who have come this far to comment on whether post #2 or post #3 seems more on-topic to explain the story the Reddit poster told.

 

The only 'issue' raised in this thread—the whole point of the reddit post you found—is to remind people that you haven't shifted to N unless you held the shifter there long enough to see N on the dash.

So if you were in D, and you haven't shifted to N, you're in D still, and might be surprised that the car still goes forward.

And if you were in R, and you haven't shifted to N, you're in R still, and might be surprised that the car still goes backward.

The reddit poster finally remembered how to shift to N and the problem was solved, and the post doesn't even go on to say anything about how the car behaved once it was shifted to N. The poster just moved right on to commenting on the unintuitive design, but otherwise loving the car.

We can infer the car just rolled nicely through the car wash in N the same way it has for everybody else who's taken a Prius through a car wash. If anything else had happened, the reddit post probably would have said so,

So, in other threads, I've seen you trying to draw conclusions about how neutral works from various stories and observations.

What's interesting and different about this thread is you're trying to draw conclusions about how neutral works from a reddit post that doesn't say one word about anything that happened after shifting to neutral.

Seems ambitious.

 

It takes about a second of pressing the shifter in the 9 o’clock direction to get into Neutral.

Seriously man, I think you have “issues”. Sometimes the toughest thing to see is yourself. I’m not trying to talk down; I’ve been there.

 

You seem to think that the delay in selecting N is something besides a matter of user-interface design.

The shifter design ever since gen 2 has been a spring-return, purely electronic input device to an ECU, where the lever has to go through the 'N' position every time you shift to D or R, and again every time you release it after shifting to D or R. So they wrote the firmware to not recognize a selection of N unless you hold the lever there for a moment.

As soon as you have held it long enough for N to light on the dash, the mode changes immediately to N. The actual change of mode is not where any delay happens.

The user interface in gen 1 was different: they used a conventional lever that stayed put at each different position. That firmware did not impose any N delay. The instant you put the lever in the N position, you were in N.

And yet the gen 1 powertrain works just the same way as the later gens (other than having a higher-voltage battery and no boost converter).

You've now used 'consensus' in a couple different ways.

You've often used it to mean a consensus understanding about how N works.

My post #4 was a simple reading-comprehension check to find out if it's just me or if other people also notice that the reddit post was only about how to select N, and not about any behavior occurring in N.

That wouldn't be referring to any kind of pre-established consensus, but only to any consensus that might form, among comprehending readers, as to what the reddit post even says.

Sure, you might cast doubt on even that consensus, too. Go for it. It might still be better than just having two members going "is not" Is too".

 

Which 'consensus' do you mean this time?

About how N works?

Or about what the reddit post says?

Or about something else?

 

is there the possibility that the reddit poster is/was confused?

i can and have replicated his actions with no issues in 3 different pri.

 

I think the reddit poster exaggerated the time delay for selecting N. I think it's closer to 1 second than it is to 3 seconds. The poster was flustered in front of a car wash attendant and probably 1 second felt like 3 at the time.

There isn't anything else unusual reported in that post. Yes, if you shift to D, and then you don't shift to N, you go forward. And if you shift to R, and then you don't shift to N, you go backward.

Nothing about that is at all unusual, or at all hard to replicate, or even particularly interesting.

 

also, if your foot is on the brake (where it should be when shifting) you're not going to crash into the guy in front of you. unless your washing while impaired (which may include a lot of reddit users)