Posted on 02/08/2016 5:22:46 PM PST by rickmichaels
Probably the engineer who thought that idea up was also responsible for simulating engine exhaust sounds through the sound system.
IIRC, Wasn’t it Nigel Mansell, driving for Ferrari, that won a boat load of races using an automatic transmission?
I had a 1974 Chevy Vega, and was about to drop an aluminum Block V-8 and a Corvair Powerglide tranny in just weeks before I got T-boned and the car was totaled.
Automatic transmissions were banned in F1 some years ago. The electrically operated switches used now are almost ‘automatic’.
Manual gear switching in racing is mandated to introduce more driver skill, not because it’s faster.
Computer control is just too good. There are only rare conditions where a manual is better than today’s technology.
You can certainly figure out a pushbutton interface, just like you can figure out any other poorly designed interface. It’s not that pushbuttons are impossible to use, just less natural.
I think buttons have two basic problems — ambiguity, and the fact that you have to anchor your hand to orient yourself. The action of pressing one button is only subtly different from pressing another. With a lever, the major actions are distinct. You slam it down until it bottoms out to put it in drive, for instance. No other gear feels like that. And because the lever itself is the anchor and reference, there is no extra anchoring step. The lever is simple where buttons are fiddly.
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