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’ve actually left my five-speed running with the door open while running a quick errand just to see if some knuckledragger is dumb enough to try.
I taught my son to drive the stick two days ago. He took right to it.
Most of my cars have been stick shifts. I remember once when I was in high school or college, I hadn’t driven an automatic in a while. I was driving my moms car with her and my brothers. I turned onto an exit ramp of the freeway and clutched the power brakes. Woke everyone up.
My bmw is on dash and shifter. P. R. D.
How about a Blue Bird bus with a 4 speed with a high/low trans. Really makes it an 8 speed. Between gears, you push or pull a red button on the gear shift shaft t change from low to high.
It’s not a sharp learning curve.
I’ve also got a few thousand mile sin 4-speed coaches. They don’t have tachometers. Instead, there is a brief shift window at certain speeds. If you miss the window, you can’t shift the gears, especially between first and second.
Most current drivers find it difficult to text on a mobile phone, drink a Starbux, and drive a manual, LOL.
My phone brews espresso for me and shifts while I watch movies on it.
Why do they continue to waste precious real estate by putting the shifters over the center hump?
Likely not. Me included.
Funny story, I had a Nissan Altima a few years back and after about a year and a half, I got a flat tire. No big deal. I pull off the road, grab my jack and go to loosen the lug-nuts. But one of them was round with a funny star-like pattern around the inside of it. My wrench was useless. I couldn't figure out what the hell that thing was. And each of the other three wheels had one also.
So I'm standing on the side of the highway looking like a complete loser who can't change out his own tire. I decide to go into the glove compartment to pull out my manual and sure enough, there's a lug nut "key" in there, still in it's original shrink-wrap.
A year and a half of driving that car and I never knew I had a set of wheel locks.
Nice.
I had a five speed, got pulled over for allegedly going 95.
Cop was patient when I said “come on, I’m an old women driving a little car, you really think I was going 95?”
I got a warning (snicker) of course I was going ...
Drove a BMW for a while and since my wife is more of a beemer person gave it to her and switched to Mercedes. The button on the BMW that turns the auto windshield wipers on corresponds to the park button on the Mercedes. The one time I hit it I was thankful that Mercedes does not allow you to do anything stupid.
They have had push button transmission before. I forgot who had them in the 50s and 60s but they had similar problems.
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In ‘58, a couple of girls I knew came to pick me up in a Mercury convertible. The push button shifting was located in the center of the steering wheel. I was given the chance to drive it and it was really awkward, since I’d only driven stick shifts before.
By the way... The photo in #4 above shows a “D/S”. What does the “S” mean?
LOL! I think you nailed it.
We had a Charger with this shifter. Most awful thing I ever owned, and I have had a lot of cars in my 45 years of driving. Was particularly frustrating when trying to make a quick but tight turn around situation where you have to go back and forth from forward to reverse several times. There was no positive feedback to the stick to let you know if it took the shift change. You had to look down at the shifter display and see if it accepted the change and went to the gear you wanted. It was also very slow at responding to such quick changes forward and reverse. Extremely annoying!
I’ll keep my manual 5 speed. It’s the best anti-theft device there is.
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Yep! Wish I still had my 280ZX. My two teen daughters at that time couldn’t drive it! .......I’ve seen a couple of reports of local attempts of carjacking at gas stations. The idiot thugs quickly jumped out and ran away because the cars were not automatics.
Haha.
We didn’t break out into singing. Google has tons of pictures of automatic gearshift levers, and that settled it.
Sounds like an accident waiting to happen if an engineer cannot easily maneuver it.
Sport
Car shifts gears at higher RPM
Driving a 2013 Mazda 5 minivan (microvan really) - with a six speed.
Not particularly cool looking, but actually fun to drive.
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