Me and my family were leaving a hotel in tarrytown ny. i parked the car: toyota highlander 2019 outside, helped my wife and 21-month baby into the back seat and had to put something in the trunk but it was locked. in that moment the car was in park with the engine running; the ground was not steep at all: 5-10 degrees the most. i took out the key from ignition to go open the trunk with the button from the remote. suddenly the car started rolling backwards with my wife and kid in the back seat. there was a slope few feet away from where i parked and the angle became about 40 degrees and it picked up speed quickly. i rushed in (drivers door was lucky open and flapping around), at the last moment was able to press the break but we still hit another car with people inside. i am the only one with visual scars and bruises on my left leg from trying to climb in the car, but my wife felt pain in her lower back the day after the crash. there were witnesses and most likely a camera, since it was by the front entrance of a major hotel. from reading and researching on this matter i suspect it is a defect in the parking pawl (the piece inside the transmission that holds the car in park). this is an absolute manufacturers defect. i saw here on the nhtsa website that a person from nj filed a complaint about the exact same matter with the same car: toyota highlander 2019 (nhtsa id number: 11245263), just a month ago so this is definitely not an isolated case. please take action. this vehicle should be recalled asap before someone gets seriously injured or worse!
When trying to coast to a stop at around 4 mph the car will slam to a stop. does not always do this but it's sometimes very hard to come to a smooth stop as the cars braking system (regenerative braking?) will kick in by itself. can be dangerous if a car is tailing very close to me as it will seem like i'm driving unpredictably. took the car to a dealer but they could not replicate the problem at the time. although the problem is intermittent it is more likely to do this when the car is still warming up.