I knew i should go to the gas station before work, but i had just noticed the blinking gas light, and figured i'd have a good 10 miles at least. I traveled the two miles to work, and after work headed for the gas station. But half a mile from work, the ominous red triangle with it's evil exclamation mark popped up on the dash. The car went to electric, then slowed to a coast just as I came to the gate of my housing development. I coasted in past the guard gate and it kinda died.....the car would not run, but the dash remained lit (except for the MPH numbers), and the power button light was amber. I pushed on the power button, but it did nothing. Eventually the car shut off completely. Everything went to black. I called Toyota (local and national)...they said put gas in or get it towed, which ever worked best. AAA came out and put in gas. It started up right away, and after a minute, the warniing lights went away, and the regular read-outs appeared. I'm guessing that the car shuts itself down BEFORE there is a major problem. I was down to one bar of battery energy, but within about 15 minutes of driving it was up to 3, and eventually back to normal. I"m guessing that my problem was simply running out of gas (AAA put in $5 worth...2 gallons, and I put in 9.6 gallons. But i also saw the posts about stalling and shutting down. I"m just glad my Prius resurrected itself with no damage. And I will never let it go below 1/4 tank!