Chrysler gear shifters confuse drivers causing crashes, injuries

Globe and Mail ^ | Feb. 8, 2016 | AP

[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.

[Kirkwood]

Probably the engineer who thought that idea up was also responsible for simulating engine exhaust sounds through the sound system.

[Zeneta]

IIRC, Wasn’t it Nigel Mansell, driving for Ferrari, that won a boat load of races using an automatic transmission?

[Zeneta]

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.

[jjotto]

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.

[Yardstick]

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.