Automatic Transmission Gear Indicator Problems of Toyota Prius

My 2005 Prius shows the following message "caution: the transmission p lock mechanism is abnormal. Park your car at a flat place, and apply parking brake completely". If I turn off the power and turn it on everything is ok. Dealer wants 57 usd to tell me what is wrong.

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The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Prius. Whenever the vehicle runs out of fuel, the gear shifter becomes difficult to maneuver. The vehicle becomes nearly impossible to move or placed into neutral to push to a safe spot. The owners manual does not contain information regarding this failure. The contact stated that it takes a minimum of three gallons of gasoline in order for the vehicle to restart. The dealer stated that they did not have to notify consumers of this issue. The contact found numerous complaints for the same failure that he experienced and believes that it is a serious safety hazard. The VIN was unknown. The current and failure mileages were 32,000.

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Yesterday (April 27, 2008), I put my Prius in park and stepped out of the car, the car was put into reverse and I was hit by my own car. At the same time as putting the car into park, my shirt sleeve caught the shifter knob and placed the car into reverse (my only thought at to how this could happen). This is a race condition that I tested out several times. The shifter knob (drive, reverse, neutral) has precedence over the park button. Therefore if the shifter and park are used at the same time, the shifter knob wins every time. I would think that the park button would have precedence and maybe lock out the shifter for 1sec or so to avoid this. I am very lucky, that I was not run over and injured/killed, the only thing I have is a bruised arm and a sore back (I was hit by the door). Is there a way to update the software in the car to make the park lock out the shifter for a specific amount of time and remove the race condition with the park and shifter?.

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The Prius uses a lever and gate to shift the transmission into gear. On my Prius, the lever stuck in the gate position and did not return to the neutral position. I pushed the "park" button and began to exit the car. It rolled forward in gear and I had to jump back in and jam on the brake to avoid injuring someone. This defect is extremely serious. If the selector lever does not return to the neutral position after a gear is selected, the park function is disabled and the vehicle will move forward.

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: the contact stated while driving 70 mph the vehicle lost power. It was maneuvered off the road and was observed to be out of gear. The contact believes the park button was accidentally depressed causing the vehicle to go out of gear. The dealer has not been alerted. The consumer stated he belives the parking gear is too close to the dashboard. It only takes little pressure to push the park selector. Updated 08/08/06.