HELP! Can't shift into Park! Car won't shut off

[Gu$ G]

2015 MS 70D with 135k miles

The car won't shift into park! I can select Reverse, Neutral or Drive normally. I can engage the parking brake. Even exiting the vehicle does not engage the parking brake.

In fact, when I exit the vehicle with the car in a gear other than Park (Neutral with parking brake applied) the car provides the typical prompt "Car automatically shifted to park to prevent rollaway...". This is the message you would typically see if you forgot to shift to park. However, the selected gear does not actually change.

The parking brake in the menu is selectable normally and works. Apparently if the car is not in Park I can't even turn it off in the Safety menu (Power Off is greyed out).

I tried a 10s reset with both volume switches. I'll look at other software reset options also.

One additional highlight... my Toddlers love to pretend to drive my car. They mess with the steering wheel and gear selector all the time. They haven't done so in a few days, but wear and tear may be higher than normal because of that.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Here's how to do a power off reset (from the manual). Some people try disconnecting the 12V battery if the power off reset doesn't work, but I've never tried that.

Power Cycling the Vehicle​

You can power cycle Model S if it demonstrates unusual behavior or displays a nondescript alert.

1. Shift into Park.
2. On the touchscreen, touch Controls > Safety > Power Off.
3. Wait for at least two minutes without interacting with the vehicle. Do not open the doors, touch the brake pedal, touch the touchscreen, etc.
4. After two minutes, press the brake pedal or open the door to wake the vehicle.

 

[Gu$ G]

Thanks @EVRider-FL . Unfortunately, because I was unable to shift into park, the option to Power Off under safety was greyed out.

I was able to figure this out. The car did not auto shift to PARK with the parking brake engaged. However, when I deselected the parking brake and tried to exit the vehicle with the car in neutral, it did correctly auto shift to park. At that point, the problem seemed to go away. Now the car works normally. Who knows... but maybe this experience will help someone else one day. I'll update if the problem returns.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Glad to hear the problem went away. Probably still a good idea to do a power off reset while you can -- it might not help, but it won't hurt either.