Two problems related to engine shut off without warning have been reported for the 2013 Toyota Prius. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
I was leaving work and as I got on to the freeway, I noticed that when I pressed the acceleration, the car would rev and jerk. Didn't think much of it thinking I would make it home. By time I made it to the freeway, my car began to rev loudly and I noticed I was loosing acceleration. Around this time I was going almost 65mph. So I pulled off the freeway and inspected the engine, didn't see anything out of the ordinary so tried to crank it up again. Car crunk, �ready� light came on and so did electric vehicle mode. As the car went start the engine, the loud rattle and shaking of the car could be hear and felt. I was able to drive another half a mile before the car just shut down. They car would not drive over 5 miles per hour. When it shut down the engine began to smoke so I knew that could not be good. I tried to turn it back on and at the point I noticed I could not put the car into reverse nor drive. The �ready� light did not come on and I no longer had power steering. The following day I got it towed to the mechanic and was informed that I had �threw a rod. � I looked and saw that other owners had submitted a complaint with very similar issues. Thought that submitting this would be effective as if this issue persist. There may not be other owners who are lucky enough to make it off the freeway without having any acceleration power.
Today, 9/11/2019. I was driving on highway 405, my car was going at highway speed around 65. Suddenly there was a beep sound and my engine light turn on. My vehicle went into the "limp home" mode, the car would not accelerate. Then the car red light was on, and the speedometer went off and the engine shuts off. Luckily I was driving on the slow lane as I was planning to exit the highway in a mile distance. My vehicle would not respond to the acceleration pedal at all, so I put on the emergency flashing light up and slowly row out toward the exit. This is the third time happened to me, within the last 30 days. Two incident happened on highway and one happened on local road. The first time was also on highway with similar experience. I am lucky to be alive. I have brought my vehicle in to the Toyota dealer maintenance 5 days ago, 9/13/2019, where they claimed they have checked everything and told me the vehicle was fine after charging me $150 analyze fee. The vehicle is obviously not fine and I could have been killed on highway. The picture provided was the day before I brought my car in to the Toyota dealer.