There were two instances when my Toyota Prius 2014 failed to brake as expected, both time resulting in backending the car in front of my Prius. Both were relatively low speed (<40 mph), first time at 29 mph, resulting in a slight dent in the bumper, the other time at 38 mph, resulting in broken bumper, hood and headlight. Because of high mileage, the car was pronounced total, but was driving just fine, as I could drive it back home without any issues.

This is a pre-owned vehicle that already has undergone "software update" to "fix" the inverter as a part of recall by the previous owner (probably the reason the previous owner "traded in" this vehicle), and there is an upcoming recall to fix the inverter issue, which might be at the heart of our experience, because inverter is responsible for using kinetic energy of the car to charge the battery. I think there is a glitch in the software, which fails to inform the MCU that the regenerative/inverter braking is not working and therefore MCU does not take control of the situation by activating the traditional rotor-and-pad friction braking in a timely manner.

Toyota said that there is no issue because the vehicle slowed down (which is true qualitatively, but quantitatively it did not slow down as it routinely does) and that the independent inspector found the brakes to be working (which is not surprising, as the occurrence is unpredictable and occasional - I have been driving it for 1.5 years, drove all the way to Canada, and the only two times it failed braking was when I back-ended.. first time giving car the benefit of doubt, but second time the EDR data revealed it seems like a defective product).

Happy to provide further information. I would also like to know if others have the same/similar issue and have the EDR data that they are willing to share - I want to see if their braking failure matched mine (pictures attached).

As I was turning my 2014 Prius to pull out of a driveway, the brakes failed and the car continued to accelerate in a forward motion. All the time with my foot on the brake, I shifted the car to stop the forward motion. It then accelerated at full tilt revving and roaring in reverse across the road and into another driveway. The tires screeched loudly. That's when it spun around and only stopped after being wedged between the garage door and a tree. The rear of the car was completely crushed by its impact with the tree. If it hadn't been for the tree, the car would have continued its reverse acceleration into a house or down a hillside and into water. An eyewitness was as incredulous as my passenger and myself to see the car racing uncontrollably across such a short distance. After more than a week, I am still waiting to hear back from Toyota about inspecting the EDR and other computer memory in the car. This is just the beginning of my fight to seek compensation for the loss of my meticulously maintained car. I have had sleepless nights reliving the seconds of traumatizing terror of driving this car that acted as if it had a mind of its own.

I was pulling out of a parking space, turned the car left to head out of the parking lot when Prius started rolling down the slight incline on its own. When depressing brake pedal, it was squishy and went down without engaging, and I did this several times in disbelief that they did not work (seeing as it was a brand new Prius). By the time I realized they were not working and went to hit emergency brake (which is so high it is difficult to get to quickly to engage) the car rolled into a truck which sustained damage to it's front and back doors. If the truck had not been there, my car would have continued to roll into a major town thoroughfare likely causing a significant accident and/or injuries.

I went to Toyota dealer and talked to employee who said, "yes, that can happen" (without the car being turned on apparently or the "ready" light doesn't go on?) and he had actually "seen it happen himself". He was not someone in a position to do anything about it and during all services provided to car, it has been deemed "normal" and operating properly. My insurance raised my rates $30/month even though I had not had an accident for decades and none that had been caused by me. I will be looking for a new insurance company!

I have researched this on the net and most of the brake complaints seem to be made re: earlier years, especially around 2007, 08 etc. It would be great if people who have had these brake problems would get in touch with each other so that there is more weight behind these complaints about phantom problems we cannot reproduce.

I was pulling into a convenience store at approximately 10 am on July 10, 2014 in a 2014 Toyota Prius with 3000 miles on it. As I was getting ready to pull into a spot at the front of the store I depressed the brakes and they did not work. The car then began to accelerate on its own and I could not stop it. I crashed into the parking posts at the front of the store. All airbags were deployed. Police and ambulance arrived and I was offered to be taken to ER by ambulance but I declined and went afterwards. I received treatment in the ER room for a cut on my forehead.

I had the car towed to a Toyota body-shop and filed a complaint with Toyota. They sent someone supposedly from an independent non biased company to do an investigation. This person took the pin drive from the vehicle. He sent me a copy of the pin drive but said it would take an engineer to explain it.

I got a letter from Toyota about 2 weeks later that said the investigation was complete and there was absolutely nothing wrong with the car and they were "sorry" about my incident. They didn't indicate how it could have happened. I am completely stuck right now because insurance says the car is fixable, but I do not want to get back behind the steering wheel of this vehicle. You see, I am concerned about killing or injuring myself or an innocent by-stander, apparently that does not concern Toyota at all.

If anyone else has had this happen to them, please make a complaint and hopefully something will be done and no one will be injured or killed. Please contact me if you need to. Maybe if enough people get together we can make a difference. Shame on Toyota.