Apollo spacecraft reaction control sysyem inspired Prius v shifter

cool!

 

I suppose there may be a technical reason the Prius needs an unconventional shifter (that doesn't tell you what gear it's in unless you look up on the dash, and where the "park" position is an entirely different switch), but I really hate that "feature," which means you can't let anyone else drive your car without giving them a detailed lesson.

 

Yet another spinoff from the Apollo program!

 

A couple fewer degrees of freedom, but, yeah.

 

I think the shifter is great. It works easily and every carwash kid in the area knows how to use it. I also like the fact that it automatically goes into park when you push the power switch. Meanwhile my crv has an electronically controlled cvt but they waste a huge amount of space with a conventional floor shifter. And it has to be shifted into park manually or it can roll away after powering down.

 

When I went from a conventional vehicle to the Prius it took me some time ( very little ) to adjust to the Prius "shifter". At first I thought I didn't like it, just because it had all the conventional markings of a traditional automatic transmission "shifter", but was different.

But after I used it, I came to really like it. Part of the acceptance process for me was to stop thinking of it as as "shifter" and think of it as a selection switch.
IMO if you think of it as a "shifter" then you have all the mental baggage and comparison to regular vehicle automatic transmissions shifters.
IMO if you think of it as what it really is, in a Prius, and that is a selection switch, then the fact that it doesn't act like and even really look like a conventional shifter, just makes more comprehensible sense. At least to me personally.
So for those proclaiming to NOT like the set up? I suggest you stop trying to shift....and simply select.

 

Exactly: the shift lever is like the reverser on a locomotive control stand, only it doesn’t stay in position, and the handle doesn’t come out.

In Toyota’s world, or at least the one described in New Car Features (more info), you have to do both: “The shift lever position sensor consists of a select sensor that detects the lateral movement of the shift lever, and a shift sensor that detects the longitudinal movement of the shift lever.”