Feds Find Fiat Chrysler Gear Shifters Can Confuse Drivers

that is very odd. but not surprising from fiat, or chrysler. generally speaking, they can't get out of their own way.

if you're gonna take up that much real estate for the shifter, then the newfangled design is just for giggles, and a regular track would work as well.

still, i don't understand how mentally cognizant people can get all the way out of a car that is still in drive.

 

It's a new shifter people aren't used too, but on a traditional, non-centering one, you would push forward three notches to get from drive to park. The push buttons they use on the Ram likely would have been a better choice.

This is a blow against the adoption of smaller shifters for all cars though.

 

perception may be a problem, but the prius shifter is about as simple as they come. okay, having to hold it in neutral for 3 seconds can be an issue.

 

Sounds like this Jeep shifter is even simpler. It just goes back or forward; a basic toggle. Like the paddle shifters on my father's mini; pull towards you to upshift, and push away to downshift. FCA went a step or so further and also use it for neutral, reverse, and park.

They just went too far in reducing dash real estate used for basic car controls.

Along with it being different than what people are use too, it sounds like the signals to warn the driver upon opening the door with the car not in park aren't enough to get their attention. But this is the real issue, "But investigators found that the push-button start-stop feature doesn’t shut off the engine if the vehicles aren’t in Park." A software update to fix this will be the reason for the actual recall.

 

"Fiat-Chrysler is recalling 811,586 vehicles to update the transmission software and include more visual warnings and chimes that the vehicles are not in park." from the above C&D article. I won't be making any predictions on who wins the Presidential election though.

FCA has switched back to a more familiar style of shifter on the latest model years, but Audi apparently has had no trouble come up about this same shifter in their A8; it's a ZF design.

 

i dislike doing things just because you can. we may not get out of this designer mess until self driving cars.

 

Sarcasm.....800K car owners who need a chauffer IMO.

 

It's an electronic shifter so why can't they let you shut off the car and automatically switch the car to park like the Prius does?

 

I've actually done this multiple times in the Prius. My muscle memory is used to pushing a lever into park (or 1st for manuals) and having to push a button is different enough that it just totally throws off my routine. At least I usually set the parking brake, so on the times I have managed to get out of the car with it still in drive it hasn't moved.

I much prefer controls where the setting can be inferred by its position, whether it's a transmission shifter, a volume knob, or a temperature control lever.

And don't get me started on the times I've grabbed the wiper stalk and tried to shift to drive. :-P

 

The Prius was the first car I regularly used a parking brake on, because of the wider range of motion in the parking pawl. I now use them regularly on my cars since. Not my wife's or parents' cars, since I expect them to drive off without noticing the brake set.

 

i have gotten out with the car on and in park, then it gives you the 3 dings so you can slap your forehead. but i can't picture myself taking my foot off the brake, having the car start to move, open the door, now it's really moving, put my left foot on the ground, feel the ground moving (seemingly), and how could i possibly get leverage with my left leg to step out of the car and put both feet on the ground, shut the door and watch it drive away?

 

Ah, but you're assuming it will move. Add in just the right incline and it will stay still, for a while. Ever forget to put a stick shift in gear when parking? It won't move until you slam the driver's door closed. Don't ask me how I know this.

[Edit] Strange, but I think it only dings when it's in park. It's more than happy to let you get out with the car in drive.

 

The driver could be trying to put the car into park, but only get it into neutral. The confusion happens, and they think it is in park. The car is stopped, and if on a shallow incline, it may not start rolling away until the driver is out of the car. Or they get to reverse, which doesn't have a creep powerful enough to start rolling the car right away on its own.

Patents? If not this, something similar is part of the fix.

 

there must be a lot of perfect inclines in the prius world.

 

Or the car simply going into park when the door opens.

 

It seems like it was trying to be smart like the Prius, but it is dumb transmission. When the Prius is in drive and you power it down it engages the parking pawl and shuts off. When the Jeep does it, the car loses power before the pawl is fully engaged? The things I have read indicate it sometimes doesn't engage park, not that it always doesn't. So to me that sounds like sometimes it is just not fast enough.

Either way a sad story. He was a great actor in the new reboots, I really liked him.

Maybe it was Khan...