Has anyone put the car into reverse or park when driving?

[tkutter]

It seems that the Automatic transmission lever (park, drive, eco, reverse, neutral) it would seem possible to accidentally push the park button when driving. Which would be bad if you were going 60mph. Same issue if you bumped the shift knob and put it into reverse.

Anyone got any thoughts or experience with this?

 

[surfingslovak]

Yes, hitting R is an expedient and perhaps even preferred method (to some) of putting the car into neutral. Great if you need to coast. The park button won't engage while the vehicle is moving, as far as I can recall, but the emergency brake is another story. I wouldn't engaging that one, not unless you wanted to create an emergency ;-)

 

[LEAFfan]

It seems that the Automatic transmission lever (park, drive, eco, reverse, neutral) it would seem possible to accidentally push the park button when driving. Which would be bad if you were going 60mph. Same issue if you bumped the shift knob and put it into reverse.

Anyone got any thoughts or experience with this?

Yep, I throw it into reverse going 65mph all the time and it automatically goes into N. Otherwise, you have to hold it to the left for 2-3 seconds. If you're going at least 7mph, you can throw it in reverse. Imo, it would be pretty hard to hit P while driving since you have to push down on the button.

 

[NYLEAF]

I've hit P while driving. The car just beeps at you for trying to park a moving car.

 

[GeekEV]

Yep. Done all three. As the others stated, R and P won't do anything. The emergency brake will engage at low speeds but at higher speeds (>15mph iirc, it's been a while) it will cause just a brief hiccup and disengage. The faster you're going the quicker it disengages.

 

[planet4ever]

The thing to remember is that the so-called "gear shift lever" is not physically connected to a transmission, and in fact there is no transmission. (There are reduction gears, but they never disengage or shift position, not even for neutral or reverse.) Moving that "puck" around, or pressing the park button, just sends electrical signals to a computer. The computer decides what, if anything, to do with the signals, depending on what the car is doing at the moment. The programming seems to be quite "fool-proof".

Ray

 

[EVDRIVER]

I put it into D while in R but only while plugged in and above 35 MPH.

 

[palmermd]

I put it into D while in R but only while plugged in and above 35 MPH.

How many regen bubbles were available when you did this?

 

[ztanos]

Yep. Done all three. As the others stated, R and P won't do anything. The emergency brake will engage at low speeds but at higher speeds (>15mph iirc, it's been a while) it will cause just a brief hiccup and disengage. The faster you're going the quicker it disengages.

I think you have to hold it like you would a standard crank e-brake. I don't know for certain, but I want to say I read that on one of these pages.

 

[EVDRIVER]

I put it into D while in R but only while plugged in and above 35 MPH.

How many regen bubbles were available when you did this?

-3

 

[GetOffYourGas]

I put it into D while in R but only while plugged in and above 35 MPH.

I hate it when I do that.

 

[gregoryjward]

The thing to remember is that the so-called "gear shift lever" is not physically connected to a transmission, and in fact there is no transmission. (There are reduction gears, but they never disengage or shift position, not even for neutral or reverse.) Moving that "puck" around, or pressing the park button, just sends electrical signals to a computer. The computer decides what, if anything, to do with the signals, depending on what the car is doing at the moment. The programming seems to be quite "fool-proof".

Ray

I have been impatient a couple of times and put the car into "R" while moving > 5mph forward or "D" while going > 5mph in reverse, and the Leaf seems to put on the brakes while going into "N" rather than obeying my command. Has anyone else noticed this?

Also, holding up the emergency brake lever while moving applies the brake at a lighter than normal pressure as long as you hold it up. It beeps at you while it brakes, but will bring the car to a stop in an acceptable distance without leaving too much rubber on the road. I've done this a few times just for jollies. It's designed to serve the function of an emergency brake if the normal brakes have given out for some reason. I guess the car wouldn't pass safety requirements, otherwise.

-Greg

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Also, holding up the emergency brake lever while moving applies the brake at a lighter than normal pressure as long as you hold it up. It beeps at you while it brakes, but will bring the car to a stop in an acceptable distance without leaving too much rubber on the road. I've done this a few times just for jollies. It's designed to serve the function of an emergency brake if the normal brakes have given out for some reason. I guess the car wouldn't pass safety requirements, otherwise.

-Greg

I'll be sure to try this out as soon as the snow flies!

 

[GeekEV]

Yep. Done all three. As the others stated, R and P won't do anything. The emergency brake will engage at low speeds but at higher speeds (>15mph iirc, it's been a while) it will cause just a brief hiccup and disengage. The faster you're going the quicker it disengages.

I think you have to hold it like you would a standard crank e-brake. I don't know for certain, but I want to say I read that on one of these pages.

I think I tried holding it too. It's been a while, I forget.

 

[JimSouCal]

Also, holding up the emergency brake lever while moving applies the brake at a lighter than normal pressure as long as you hold it up. <snip>

I'll be sure to try this out as soon as the snow flies!

That's the spirit. If I had a snow covered parking lot would do the same thing.

 

[LEAFfan]

I have been impatient a couple of times and put the car into "R" while moving > 5mph forward or "D" while going > 5mph in reverse, and the Leaf seems to put on the brakes while going into "N" rather than obeying my command. Has anyone else noticed this?
-Greg

As I had posted earlier, you need to be going 7mph or faster before you throw it into R. Anything under 7 is going to result in what happened to you. I'm usually going at least 15mph before I use 'R'.