Im surprised you didnt do it out of habit.
What’s the matter? Didn’t have fun rebuilding the rear drums?
As a teen, I got hit in the face once trying to put the double ended tension spring back on with pliers. Bought the right tool after that.
Given your neighbor did not put the vehicle in Park, then the orignial request ("Automatically Engage Break When Put in Park") would not apply.We have a neighbor who could have used an automatic parking brake. I don't know the details, but she left her vehicle in the garage with the vehicle, obviously not in Park or the parking brake set. What she did with her fob was never made clear. She walked into her kitchen with the fob, the vehicle rolled out of her garage, across the driveway, down a hill through a neighbor's front yard, over a sidewalk, across an intersection, then colliding with a very sturdy metal street sign set into the ground in a couple of feet of concrete on the opposite side of the intersection. Otherwise, the vehicle might have kept going and crashed into the front of a house abutting that intersection. Luckily, no one was walking by on any of the sidewalks, and no other cars were at a normally fairly busy intersection. The fob was vaguely blamed as the cause of the accident (perhaps because in the days of the keyed ignitions, you couldn't take your key out of the vehicle unless you put the vehicle in Park). She also once had a guest who got out of his vehicle not in Park. This time the guy's SUV rolled straight down the driveway and knocked over a neighbor's brick mailbox pillar. The guy similarly should have set his vehicle in Park and set the handbrake before he emerged from his vehicle.
IIRC, back around the 1950s, someone was getting out of their GM vehicle. They had pulled their key from the ignition and assumed that shut the vehicle off (it had to be in the ignition to make the car run, after all!). But the vehicle was still running and, in sliding across the driver's seat to get out, somehow through the steering wheel gear shift, they knocked the car into Drive. The vehicle lurched forward, running someone over. There was a suit against GM, IIRC, as to why GM didn't do something to mechanically prevent such accidents. The result was the safety standard that required vehicles to be put in Park to remove the key from the ignition. A similar big lawsuit is waiting to happen with fobs, IMHO.
Rollaway: The Safety Problem that Doesn’t Go Away - Newsome | Melton Law (newsomelaw.com)
If no one's in the driver's seat, the vehicle should take steps to make sure it doesn't roll away. And you could just have the electronics reverse the park lock when a driver of sufficient size gets back into the driver's seat and puts their foot on the brake, or something like that. (just suggesting the general idea, ignoring details).
The other problem with ICE vehicles is carbon monoxide poisoning from people who don't realize they've left their vehicles running in the garage when they walk away with the fob. The following article says that Congress has directed NHSTA to solve both the carbon monoxide problem and the runaway problem. With EVs, we don't face the CO problem.
Congress Forces NHTSA to Address Keyless Safety Hazards. One Automaker’s Approach Shows Why Regulations Matter - Safety Research & Strategies, Inc.
Not true today depending on angle and direction of travel. My drive slopes a small amount. If I'm backing out and stop on the angle and put the truck in park the brake sets. If my next direction of travel is forward back into the garage it will release. If my travel is backwards I must release the brake manually for the truck to move.
I have had a different experience so far with my 2022 Lariat ER. I have a significant incline/decline in my lane that leads to my out buildings and have had the brake automatically set when I get out with it running. Of course it automatically set the shifter to Park as soon as I opened the driver door.
