I had just finished reversing to adjust my parallel parking in a residential street. I placed the hazard lights on and put the car into "P". after my daughter got in, I took off the hazard lights and place my car on "D". in order for me to change gears I have to press down the brake, and as I let go to start driving I felt my car do a quick two "tugs" as I was going forward and into a drive-way on my left. When I was turning the steering wheel, I felt it start to go stiff to where I had to turn it hard for it to move. The car started to slow down while I pressing the gas, coming to a halt before my front wheels could go on the drive-way. I pressed the brakes but they were hard where I could not press down on them and I let them go. I pressed down on them again hoping they would work, but they were hard. At that point the car sounded like it turned off on me even though the sign on my ignition read "run". I look down and my gear is on "D" but flashing on and off. At this point I am stuck in the middle of a residential street (sideways) because my car would not move. I look at the screen in my dashboard and its flashing something about "shift" and the battery light is on. I was panicking so I did not fully read what it was flashing and fortunately was able to change the gear to "P" even though I could not press down the brakes because they were very stiff. I turned off my car, and restarted it. At that point my car worked like nothing happened. I know my car in a weird way turned itself off because my A/C was not blowing cool air anymore (windshield was starting to fog because of the rain) until I restarted the car. I will say that a few months prior my "parking brake" turned on on its own, and I had mistakenly thought I had done it even though I had not touched it. I was adjusting my car into a parking spot and had just changed from "R" to "D".

- Houston, TX, USA