The issue with the occasional odd braking behavior has already been well publicised on this on this and the Prius chat forum, then we have the worrying issue of the stuck accelerator supposedly caused by carpet mats, but seems to be disputed by some.

Now I have experienced another strange and worrying braking behaviour.

I was parked yesterday in a car park on a slight downward slope. I set off and applied light brake pressure as I pulled out of the parking space. The car came to an abrupt halt as though I had suddenly applied emergency braking. I apologised to my pasengers thinking I had braked to hard, and drove off with everything appearing to be as normal. Today exactly the same thing happened. Just light pressure on the brake pedal and it just felt rock hard. Just touching the brake pedal stopped the car instantly. After three attempts with the same problem, I applied the parking brake and released it again. This time the braking was back to normal.

I just received a phone call from my wife who has gone out in the car and experienced exactly the same problem. she said there was virtually no travel in the brake pedal and the brakes came hard on as soon as she touched the pedal. I suggested she apply the parking brake on and off a couple of times and once again everything went back to normal.

I'm wondering if the brakes are not releasing after the parking brake has been applied, but why would this affect the operation of the foot brake pedal.

I guess its another call the the service department.

Anyone else experienced this?

EDIT: Seems that the problem has also been reported on the Prius Chat forum, altough in my case I wasn't in reverse.
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-p...in-reverse.html

Now with the Gen3 Prius for exactly a month covered 650miles and no, no such issue and also I have the Prius mats and the design is different to the one in the user manual, so the bit which would otherwise go behind the accelerator pedal has been re-designed and it is more a perfect rectangle mat no where close to the pedal.

Hi
i have just covered 5000 miles in my Gen 3 prius with no real problems but in-response i have found little problem with brakes but understand the problem a little if you every driven a wagon
you can get similar things happen if i switch my prius on and pull away before it has prepared its self it will do what you explain i move up on the taxi rank in electric and touch the brake it reacts
very sharp i feel the system has to seem to adjust its self a little like air brakes on a wagon . it is only time i have felt any problem with brakes i am sure their is logical explanation their is a lot of Tech knowledge under that their bonnet