Actor Anton Yelchin died

[DGuller]

Seems needlessly complicated.  There are times when knobs are actually more useful than up/down buttons, and not just old-fashioned.  It seems to me that gear selectors fall in that category.

[Malthus]

This is apparently the shifter.  It doesn't seem to be particularly confusing.     If the P is lit, it's in park......right?

It certainly doesn't look confusing to me; but then, I've never driven with it.

The problem the car maker will have, though, is in arguing that the system isn't defective, when they have already agreed to a recall. A jury will question why, if there is no problem with it, a recall was initiated.

[MadBurgerMaker]

It sounds like they're having to put some sort of kill switch in there since some people aren't bothering to look at the light (it apparently already makes noise).  Tap it up three times from D = park.  Tap it up once from D = neutral. The light says what it's in. I wonder if people are just pushing it harder and thinking that's enough to put it in park.

Just killing the engine won't take it out of neutral though, so it would still roll down a hill after you toss it in neutral and jump out to...do whatever it is you're doing.  It at least won't idle forward in parking lots or whatever though, I guess.  They'll have to have it hit the breaks when whatever genius is in there opens the door. 

[DGuller]

It sounds like they're having to put some sort of kill switch in there since some people aren't bothering to look at the light (it apparently already makes noise).  Tap it up three times from D = park.  Tap it up once from D = neutral. The light says what it's in. I wonder if people are just pushing it harder and thinking that's enough to put it in park.

Just killing the engine won't take it out of neutral though, so it would still roll down a hill after you toss it in neutral and jump out to...do whatever it is you're doing.  It at least won't idle forward in parking lots or whatever though, I guess.  They'll have to have it hit the breaks when whatever genius is in there opens the door.

I imagine they made it impossible to shut off the engine in gears other than park partly because you wouldn't be able to see which gear you're in when the engine is off.  It sounds like one of the problems is that sometimes instead of ensuring this features makes people put it in park, it makes them exit the vehicle without either putting it in park or shutting off their engine.  If you can absentmindedly derp on the purely electronic gear selection, you can likewise derp on the fact that your push-button ignition didn't shut the engine off.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Seems like all they really should need to do is have the brakes apply when the door is opened, unless there are some laws about that or some such.  Doesn't really matter if the engine is running at that point, as long as it's stopped.  Although that might encourage people to just stop and open the door instead of actually looking and putting it in park.    What a strange problem to have. 

[Monoriu]

It sounds like they're having to put some sort of kill switch in there since some people aren't bothering to look at the light (it apparently already makes noise).  Tap it up three times from D = park.  Tap it up once from D = neutral. The light says what it's in. I wonder if people are just pushing it harder and thinking that's enough to put it in park.

Just killing the engine won't take it out of neutral though, so it would still roll down a hill after you toss it in neutral and jump out to...do whatever it is you're doing.  It at least won't idle forward in parking lots or whatever though, I guess.  They'll have to have it hit the breaks when whatever genius is in there opens the door.

Tap it three times to go from D to park?  That's unnecessarily complex and confusing.  Is there any reason to adopt that design rather than the common "move the stick" design? 

[frunk]

Tap it three times to go from D to park?  That's unnecessarily complex and confusing.  Is there any reason to adopt that design rather than the common "move the stick" design?

Electrical shifter is probably cheaper than a mechanical.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Tap it three times to go from D to park?  That's unnecessarily complex and confusing.  Is there any reason to adopt that design rather than the common "move the stick" design?

It's in order.  If you look at the shifter, it goes P > R > N > D/S (the S is manual shifting.  I think the new G Cherokees have some dumb paddle shifters).  So if you're in D, you tap it up 1x to go to N, 2x to R, 3x to P.   Tap 3x down for drive, etc.

And yeah, like Frunk says, it's probably cheaper. 

[DGuller]

It sounds like they're having to put some sort of kill switch in there since some people aren't bothering to look at the light (it apparently already makes noise).  Tap it up three times from D = park.  Tap it up once from D = neutral. The light says what it's in. I wonder if people are just pushing it harder and thinking that's enough to put it in park.

Just killing the engine won't take it out of neutral though, so it would still roll down a hill after you toss it in neutral and jump out to...do whatever it is you're doing.  It at least won't idle forward in parking lots or whatever though, I guess.  They'll have to have it hit the breaks when whatever genius is in there opens the door.

Tap it three times to go from D to park?  That's unnecessarily complex and confusing.  Is there any reason to adopt that design rather than the common "move the stick" design?

It's probably a space issue.  I imagine most "move the stick" shifters are fully electronic as well, it's just a different way of activating electrical switches.

[frunk]

It's probably a space issue.  I imagine most "move the stick" shifters are fully electronic as well, it's just a different way of activating electrical switches.

It's minimizing and simplifying the mechanical component of the shifter.  The communication to the transmission in both cases is almost certainly electrical.

[The Minsky Moment]

This is apparently the shifter.  It doesn't seem to be particularly confusing.     If the P is lit, it's in park......right?

It certainly doesn't look confusing to me; but then, I've never driven with it.

The problem the car maker will have, though, is in arguing that the system isn't defective, when they have already agreed to a recall. A jury will question why, if there is no problem with it, a recall was initiated.

I would expect a big fight over admissibility of the recall.

[dps]

It sounds like they're having to put some sort of kill switch in there since some people aren't bothering to look at the light (it apparently already makes noise).  Tap it up three times from D = park.  Tap it up once from D = neutral. The light says what it's in. I wonder if people are just pushing it harder and thinking that's enough to put it in park.

Just killing the engine won't take it out of neutral though, so it would still roll down a hill after you toss it in neutral and jump out to...do whatever it is you're doing.  It at least won't idle forward in parking lots or whatever though, I guess.  They'll have to have it hit the breaks when whatever genius is in there opens the door.

Tap it three times to go from D to park?  That's unnecessarily complex and confusing.  Is there any reason to adopt that design rather than the common "move the stick" design? 

How is tapping a button 3 times more complicated and confusing than moving a lever 3 notches?

[Monoriu]

It sounds like they're having to put some sort of kill switch in there since some people aren't bothering to look at the light (it apparently already makes noise).  Tap it up three times from D = park.  Tap it up once from D = neutral. The light says what it's in. I wonder if people are just pushing it harder and thinking that's enough to put it in park.

Just killing the engine won't take it out of neutral though, so it would still roll down a hill after you toss it in neutral and jump out to...do whatever it is you're doing.  It at least won't idle forward in parking lots or whatever though, I guess.  They'll have to have it hit the breaks when whatever genius is in there opens the door.

Tap it three times to go from D to park?  That's unnecessarily complex and confusing.  Is there any reason to adopt that design rather than the common "move the stick" design? 

How is tapping a button 3 times more complicated and confusing than moving a lever 3 notches?

1. It is an unusual design.

2. In the conventional design, I can determine the car's gear by either looking/feeling the position of the stick, or checking which light is on.  In this design, I can only know the gear by checking the light.  I won't know the gear by looking at the position of the stick.  When I have 10 things to do in the driver's seat, I cannot gurantee that I know that I have tapped the button 3 times or 2 times. 

[DGuller]

The thing is that nothing is that hard, 99.9% of the time.  But the other 0.1% of the time, when you encounter an unusual situation or your routine is unexpectedly interrupted, is when shit happens.  And that's also when the difference between familiar and unfamiliar layouts surfaces.  The difference between reacting to unusual situations instinctively and thinking them through can be life and death.

[Malthus]

This is apparently the shifter.  It doesn't seem to be particularly confusing.     If the P is lit, it's in park......right?

It certainly doesn't look confusing to me; but then, I've never driven with it.

The problem the car maker will have, though, is in arguing that the system isn't defective, when they have already agreed to a recall. A jury will question why, if there is no problem with it, a recall was initiated.

I would expect a big fight over admissibility of the recall.

Here I think it would be difficult to keep it out.