Steering Wheel with Exclamation Warning light

Can you show us the rest of your display in front of the steering wheel? Could be a number of things. Is your door slightly ajar?

 

Electric Power Steering (EPS) System Indicator
● Comes on when you set the power mode to ON, and goes off when the power system is on.
● Comes on if there is a problem with the EPS system.
● Stays on constantly or does not come on at all - Have your vehicle checked by an authorized
Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid dealer.
2 If the Electric Power Steering (EPS) System Indicator Comes On P. 549

 

Sigh all of these mystery phantom errors are troublesome. I fear that it's like the boy who cried wolf. If there's a critical system error at some point that needs attention we are going to ignore it thinking it'll go away after a few days.

 

I think this issue has been mentioned in other threads. If you started the car in accessory mode (without depressing brake), you need to shutdown first by pressing the power button once or twice without depressing brake until it shuts off. Then you put depress the brake and press power button.

If you started the car in accessory mode and then try to start the car in drive mode with your foot on the brake, it won't let you. IMO, it is not intuitive. Why can't I put the car in drive from accessory mode? Maybe Honda thinks you started the car in accessory mode to give your passengers radio and phone charging capability. If you left the car without the fob, it doesn't want your passengers or kids being able to put the car in drive without first shutting down. It seems a bit farfetched.

 

Here is the difference between a engineer and a normal user: a bit far-fetched is not acceptable when the consequences can be catastrophic for a engineer, but it could be fine for a normal user that is willing to take some risk.

All design has to go through a FMEA to reduce any risk as much as possible, unless there is a really good justification for not mitigating it more. So if the driver have to choose between turn off the car from accessories mode before they can start driving, or risking someone else without the fob can start the car... Thats a easy one to choose

 

With respect, I beg to differ.

If you push start with no foot on brake and enter accessory mode, you can go directly to driving or on mode by pushing start one time with foot on brake pedal. It’s the same result as a normal start up (foot on brake, push start).

Here is where it gets confusing.
If you are in accessory mode and push start without your foot on the brake, you go into some sort of in between mode where some warning lights are on, the DRTs are on, but you can’t select anything but Neutral and Park and thus can’t “start” and go anywhere.
Again, no problem, just start up as usual by foot on brake and push start.
The problem for me until I figured this out was that I keep trying to select R or D (not noticing they would not illuminate) and wondering why the car wouldn’t go anywhere. With the DRTs on, it can make you think you’ve started up and are ready to go when in fact you’re in this “in between mode”.

Bottom line, at any time, from any mode, just put foot on brake and push start once to drive away.
At least that’s what my car does.

I also had to learn that if I am using brake hold and turn off the car, then the next time I start the car the parking brake is on and I’m sitting there going @#*%¥, why won’t this thing move!!!! Then I hear and see the notice to release parking brake which I didn’t expect because I didn’t put the parking brake on.

 

Yeah, I don't get that in between mode at all. It feels like an old fashioned ignition where you turn the key to on but don't keep going to start it.

 

Doesn't depressing the accelerator pedal will release the parking brake automatically?

 

I just tried this out.

You can’t shift without your foot on the brake pedal and after you shift, the parking brake (previously applied either manually or automatically by Brake Hold) will be released by just pressing the accelerator like @JJim says.

However if you try to manually release it in Park, you get a warning and have to first depress the brake pedal. I saw the red Brake indicator and like in my old gasmobile thought I had to manually release it.

Thanks @JJim for getting me in auto mode. Man, this car is smarter than I am!

 

If this car could answer as many questions about how it works as you can, KentuckyKen, I might agree with you. But its lips remained sealed (as do Honda's).

 

This happened to me once, and what you just described says it perfectly KentuckyKen

 

As a prospective buyer, these types of stories and glitches — or, rather, complications — make me hesitant to buy the car.

I just want to turn on car, release parking brake, move shifter to drive, and go!

The car is sounding more and more to me like a piece of difficult software, with odd controls, menu commands in unexpected places, unexpected behavior, and weird error messages!

I suppose one gets used to it, but it sounds as if it could overwhelming to mere mortals!

 

The Clarity PHEV is even easier to drive than your desire--you don't have to release the parking brake (unless you set it when you parked or left the Brake Hold button in effect). Just push the On/Off button, then the Drive button (unless you're still in your garage, of course). And when you're done, all you have to do is press the On/Off button and the car puts itself in Park automatically! We love our Clarity PHEV.

It wouldn't make sense for most of us on the forum to frequently report, "No warning lights today or other strange things happened today, just like the last 240 days." For the majority, the Clarity just works, like other Hondas just work.

However, it's good that the people who do have problems to report them so others can share solutions (or share their pain). We bought our Clarity in early December and haven't seen a warning light, haven't heard a fast-buzzing engine (actually the engine hasn't started in the last three months), or changed our floor mats three times to get the most favored brand.

We all feel sorry for BobCubsFan, who's cursed with a Clarity that decides to start up its engine more frequently than any other commenter on this forum. However, even though it's annoying, his Clarity hasn't stranded him on the highway, leaving him high and dry. There don't appear to be any other Claritys like Bob's, but Honda's not very responsive.

 

Appreciate the observation. For sure, the totality of forum posts can be skewed, and focused on problems, yet many folks are also reporting on their good experiences, excited by their new cars and its amazing features!

The bigger issue to me is that many of the issues being reported seem to be inherent complications; that is, many of the things are designed in — lack of knobs, convoluted layered menus, or, unexpected design choices.

“Here is where it gets confusing.

If you are in accessory mode and push start without your foot on the brake, you go into some sort of in between mode where some warning lights are on, the DRTs are on, but you can’t select anything but Neutral and Park and thus can’t “start” and go anywhere.

Again, no problem, just start up as usual by foot on brake and push start.”

Some of what I’ve been reading makes it sound like the car is an unfinished smartphone on wheels!

But, I’ll have to go test drive one and see how it goes. However, then I read about all the dealers who don't charge the car, which means the test drive will be misleading — and about other dealers who don't know much about the car — and it's off-putting!

Plus, I remain troubled by Lane Watch instead of blind spot monitoring and the lack of rear cross traffic alert —and still no crash test reports!

Even some staunch Clarity owners have recommended that, at this point, that I wait until the 2019 models come out and see whether they've fixed some of the issues! That indicates there are known problems!

 

Just one more observation on this. See this thread on tips for what should be in a review and, this, what owners or prospective buyers should know about! It makes my point about just how complicated or involved using the Clarity can be!

http://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/help-us-write-a-clarity-plug-in-hybrid-review.2970/

Helpful stuff, but it's overwhelming. Reading it —and all the options and ins and outs — gives me a headache and I usually love high tech gear, fiddling with software, etc. But in a car?!

There never were such threads or comments when we bought our now vintage Honda Accord!

——————

Or, this:

http://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/someone-hit-my-car-today.2982/

The 2019 Honda Insight is looking more appealing every day!

 

The Clarity PHEV certainly can be complicated compared to a vintage Accord, but it doesn't force its potential complications on the driver. After comprehending the plug-in aspect of the car, you can just get in and drive the thing.

 

The question I have is: Does other car that has Push Button on/off behave similarly regardless if it is EV/PHEV/ICE especially newer Honda models