Left Clarity "ON" by mistake! Way way up in the Mtns...Ohh Dear!!

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NW Surfer

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Okay, last car was a 1996 Honda Civic with roll down windows.. Give a bit of slack. I am mechanically inclined but not push to start/stop button inclined I guess! So when I took the five of us up into the mountains in our new Clarity, I was surprised to return three hours later after hike to a car that I think was unlocked, dead screen and dead power button just barely red on outside? Nothing worked, and we were a long way from anywhere. Hmmmm, visiting relatives not too impressed!! No cell coverage. Looking into "eye" of 12v batt charge indicator on top of the 12v battery... looked normal charged colors. First thing I did was borrow pliers from another motorist to disconnect 12v terminal, count to 12 and reconnect... Reboot as battery seemed good... Nothing.... nothing... managed to flag another motorist and though I did not like the idea of a jumpstart... went for it... The Clarity "lit up" immediately (electronic start).
Every warning msg known to the Honda Gods continued to cycle on screen and loop again and again as I drove out access road to main road. My Big Battery was low, standard two bars, as I had used it up on previous drive, as I pulled away in EV mode, slightly down hill, was praying the engine would kick in shortly... which it did.... A tense experience.. Halfway home we stopped at big box store and bought a jump kit, which I now have in trunk. But have had no problems since, error msgs cleaned up and all is well in the Clarity, about 1200 miles driven...on 14 gallons ....

Just passing along, after driving two hours home my 12v battery with volt meter on terminals (car off) was a normal 13.3

Any one else run down 12v battery in 3hrs of "left on" state??

Also, I am not 100% sure I left it on, but cannot come up with another explanation.

A factor in the sequence of events was a large group all accessing or departing vehicle at different times.. one relative who was last accessing trunk before hike, reported hearing the 3 beeps or so ... the single "car on " warning
 
I've done it twice, but after the second time, I now have trained myself to view vehicle exit as a two-step process. Wait for an acknowledgment on the display, then open door and exit. I kind of feel like this is a human/psychological engineering oversight. On Tesla, when we exit the vehicle and close doors, it turns itself off. Always. No reason why Clarity can't do this, too. It would save some "tense experiences" since there's no other cues - save the three beeps - that the car is still "on".

I get that some people will leave people or pets in their vehicles - not going into that one now - and want to run the A/C, so the car has to stay on. So maybe just a better warning that keys are in the vehicle or system is still "on" would be helpful to owners.
 
Thanks for sharing @NW Surfer - I have jumper cables in our other 4 vehicles but it did not occur to me to have them in the Clarity until your post!

geo
 
Now, I'm afraid that the parking attendants in my valet parking lot is going to accidentally leave it on. I don't have the car yet.
 
I've done it three times, so far, though now I do listen and understand the beeping. First time it happened: I parked, got out, got a haircut (not much on top so this is usually fairly quick) got to car, realized it was unlocked, got in and discovered it was "on". YIKES!!
 
Glad your story had a happy ending, and appreciate the lesson-learned. I am putting my jumpers in the trunk. I don't want to experience the humiliation of ever having to jump-start my Clarity, but if it's necessary, you do what you have to do.

I've never left my Clarity running (yet), but I occasionally get the 3 beeps when I close the door, even with the power off. Reopening and closing the door again always resolves it, but I don't understand what the car is trying to tell me. The doors all seems to be fully closed when it happens. I have learned to listen carefully for the single beep when I exit the car, having learned that the auto lock won't work when the 3 beeps happen. I think I've taught my wife to do that too, but she doesn't appreciate being asked to do anything twice, so I'm just hoping she does.
 
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I have never had to jump start my Clarity, but I have used my Clarity to jump start my Prius. The Clarity replaced the Prius but there was a three month gap between buying the Clarity and selling the Prius. After sitting outside in the freezing winter for weeks the Prius was dead (this happened twice over the three months). Jumpstarting the Prius with the Clarity was a breeze.
 
I left my car on one time and didn't realized it was still on. I guess I was too excited to do my first public charging and once I plug the charger in, the damn thing wouldn't start. I kept pushing the buttons on the charger and nothing worked. Then I realized the car was still on. :P

I made it a habit now to watch the car-off animation and see how many green leaves I accumlated. :D
 
The Prius had a feature which would preserve the battery if the car was left for a long time. There was a button under the dash.

Does the Clarity have any such feature? I don't remember seeing it in the manual. I wonder if there is a similar drain if the car is left parked for a long time? How long will the car stay parked and allow it to be fired up?
 
jdonalds said:
The Prius had a feature which would preserve the battery if the car was left for a long time. There was a button under the dash.

Does the Clarity have any such feature? I don't remember seeing it in the manual. I wonder if there is a similar drain if the car is left parked for a long time? How long will the car stay parked and allow it to be fired up?
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I don't recall that button on my 2010 Prius. That would have come in handy after we bought the Clarity. I probably wouldn't have had to jump start it at all.
 
jdonalds said:
...... I wonder if there is a similar drain if the car is left parked for a long time? How long will the car stay parked and allow it to be fired up?
Click to expand...

I've been pondering those questions, too. Partially from a concern about a dead battery while traveling, but even more so about the potential safety risk of leaving the Clarity running in a closed garage.

Assuming that the 12V battery has sufficient charge, once the HV battery is depleted, the engine would turn on to replenish the HV battery, creating a potential carbon monoxide risk to the owners. I guess the best safety scenario would be to have the 12V battery drain first. It seems there should be some more positive warning, or a mechanism to have it stop after being left unoccupied and closed while running.
 
jdonalds said:
The Prius had a feature which would preserve the battery if the car was left for a long time. There was a button under the dash.

Does the Clarity have any such feature? I don't remember seeing it in the manual. I wonder if there is a similar drain if the car is left parked for a long time? How long will the car stay parked and allow it to be fired up?
Click to expand...
I stood on my head under the driver’s dash when I was hooking up my dash cam and didn’t see anything that looked like a control or switch of any kind. Accepting donations towards back surgery now.
 
vicw said:
Glad your story had a happy ending, and appreciate the lesson-learned. I am putting my jumpers in the trunk. I don't want to experience the humiliation of ever having to jump-start my Clarity, but if it's necessary, you do what you have to do.

I've never left my Clarity running (yet), but I occasionally get the 3 beeps when I close the door, even with the power off. Reopening and closing the door again always resolves it, but I don't understand what the car is trying to tell me. The doors all seems to be fully closed when it happens. I have learned to listen carefully for the single beep when I exit the car, having learned that the auto lock won't work when the 3 beeps happen. I think I've taught my wife to do that too, but she doesn't appreciate being asked to do anything twice, so I'm just hoping she does.
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the car thinks you left the keys in it because you are still close to it for awhile before you walk away.
 
Another fun data point - my wife stood beside the clarity with the remote as I started the car and drove off. It did give the warning beep but let me keep driving. After I got a couple of hundred feet I stopped the vehicle and shut off the power but I could (of course) not restart it. What I don't know is if after some longer period of time it would have stopped or if I could drive 50 miles away and then realize I couldn't restart.

While an unlikely scenario, it could be a real pain if it happened.

geo
 
loomis2 said:
I don't recall that button on my 2010 Prius. That would have come in handy after we bought the Clarity. I probably wouldn't have had to jump start it at all.
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Oh you're right. I looked in the Prius manual and couldn't find the switch. I thought sure there was one. The only thing I could find was data about turning off the proximity key sensor so it, at least, wouldn't use power. Then you'd have to unlock the doors with the physical key.
 
LAF said:
the car thinks you left the keys in it because you are still close to it for awhile before you walk away.
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I don't think so. The beep, or 3 beeps, occurs within a couple of seconds after closing the door.

I tried to make it happen as you described, standing closely alongside the door after closing, without moving away at all, and couldn't get the 3 beeps to happen.
 
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