I spent many years helping develop it.
Posted on 02/08/2016 5:22:46 PM PST by rickmichaels
Electronic gear shifters on some newer Fiat Chrysler SUVs and cars are so confusing that drivers have exited the vehicles with the engines running and while they are still in gear, causing crashes and serious injuries, U.S. safety investigators have determined.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in documents posted during the weekend, has doubled the number of vehicles involved in an investigation of the problem, but it stopped short of seeking a recall. The agency found more than 100 crashes and over a dozen injuries, mostly in Jeep Grand Cherokees.
Agency tests found that operating the centre console shift lever “is not intuitive and provides poor tactile and visual feedback to the driver, increasing the potential for unintended gear selection,†investigators wrote in the documents. They upgraded the probe to an engineering analysis, which is a step closer to a recall. NHTSA will continue to gather information and seek a recall if necessary, a spokesman said.
The investigation could determine just how much auto makers can change the way cars operate when they introduce new technology, and how far they can stray from conventional ways of controlling vehicles that drivers are accustomed to.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
I think the only one I haven’t driven is a 6 speed standard shift but its just one more gear.
I had an F150 with 3 on the tree, a Saab with 4 on the tree, a half dozen 3 and 4 speeds on the floor, my last F150 had a 5 speed on the floor.
Information is your friend.
My Acura has the shifter on the console, Mercedes has it in the steering wheel. After driving the Mercedes for a while then getting in the Acura I turn on the wipers trying to shift, duh.
Test drive before you buy? Salesman goes along to answer questions, shows how things work?
“Doesn’t anyone actually read an owner’s manual any more?”
If I interpret this correctly, its a lot like a joystick on a video game. It always go back to the same centered position. So, for park, the driver bumps it forward 3 times, and looks for a light.
“A light shows which gear is selected, but to get from Drive to Park, drivers must push the lever forward three times. The gearshift does not have notches that match up with the gear you want to shift into, and it moves back to a centred position after the driver picks a gear”
Then there’s this:
“But investigators found that the push-button start-stop feature doesn’t shut off the engine if the vehicles aren’t in Park,
‘This function does not protect drivers who intentionally leave the engine running or drivers who do not recognize that the engine continues to run after an attempted shut-off,’ investigators wrote.”
So if I fail in bumping the joystick the right number of times, and push the engine stop button...I’ve really left the car in gear with it running.
I would never buy this car.
Doesn’t anyone actually read an owner’s manual any more?
****************
Perhaps they may have printed the manual in the wrong Spanish dialect?
Dodge and Plymouth had those.Usually a 727 torqueflite mated to a 383 or 426 wedge.
Chrysler Corp had push button auto transmissions in the early 60s.
Ii somehow got on a freebee list and got free subscriptions to Car & Driver and Motor Trend. I had not really kept up with newer cars since I can no longer afford them.
One thing which surprised me is newer cars will perform better with auto transmissions than manual. For that reason I see no real reason for the standard ones anymore.
Another thing is how many gears the automatics have. Most of them are at leas 6 and some are as many as 10. Hard to believe the old powerglides got by just fine with 2.
Also horsepower especially considering how small the engines are, has gotten really high.
My two cars are stick shift and column shift. Every once in a while, I do ‘air shifting’ on the column of the wrong vehicle, when I get in.
I’ve driven the BMW suvs with this system and find it “different” to use until you really get used to it. If you’re only an occasional driver in one, very easy to see how it can be confusing.
***They have had push button transmission before. I forgot who had them in the 50s and 60s but they had similar problems.***
I remember those! One had the buttons in the middle of the steering wheel, another had the buttons on a small square panel on the left side of the dashboard.
Are these the infamous “paddle-shifters” I’ve heard about but never seen?
Automatics SUCK. If everyone learned to drive stick shifts, accidents and other mishaps would decline significantly.
I spent many years helping develop it.
SB ‘P D N R’ not ‘P R N D’..
This article caused me and my husband to have an argument about what an automatic gear shift even looks like.
I like my 5 speed. I learned to drive standards when I was in Spain, and stayed with it ever since. I don’t know about now, but in the 80’s, Europe had not embraced the use of automatics.
We have the same make/model of vehicle. Makes taking the other one seamless.
I have a Jag and Hubby has a Mercedes. I can’t find anything in the Mercedes when I drive it. Takes me a minute to acclimate. Lol
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