NHTSA Complaint #11517143 — 2023 TOYOTA SUPRA

This vehicle (in particular the new manual transmission equipped one) has a system which automatically disengages the electronic parking brake when you try to drive away with it applied, and that system does not have enough interlocks or "rules" that govern when it activates. In certain circumstances, the car will automatically disengage the parking brake with as little user input as simply letting the clutch pedal out - even if you've just come to a stop and applied the parking brake immediately before letting the clutch pedal out. Given that the only safe way to exit the vehicle with the engine running is with the parking brake applied and the car in neutral, this over-active system easily results in a rollaway vehicle hazard. This happened to me twice and I didn't understand at the time what was going on, but I have mostly isolated the conditions under which it has happened. The system seems to be looking for recent brake and throttle inputs, and if those inputs have been triggered recently then letting the clutch pedal out will automatically disengage the parking brake. However, "recently" seems to be very liberal, as you can touch the brake and throttle and then wait at least ten seconds (and potentially longer) then let out on the clutch, and the system will automatically disengage the parking brake. Additionally, the system does not seem to care if the car is in neutral or in gear. The car is aware of what gear it's in at all times, as this information is displayed in the instrument cluster with R, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 indicating which gear you've selected, or N for neutral. Obviously if you're in neutral, you're not attempting to drive away, so the system should never activate when the car is in neutral. I have additionally documented this issue in a video here: https://youtu.be/GXAR1Q-ApUQ