Are new Jeep shifters too complicated or are people too stupid?

[Jimmyb]

With all the press coverage in Australia in recent times regarding the new Jeep and Chrysler auto shifter, what are the real thought from Jeep owners?


The death of 27-year-old Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin has again thrust an auto recall story into the national spotlight.

It has also brought scrutiny to a once-simple function that has grown more complicated in recent years: shifting a vehicle with an automatic transmission into drive or reverse and back to park or neutral.

As the illustration below shows, vehicles ranging from the Honda Pilot to the Mercedes-Benz S class have evolved from mechanical control to electronic. "Shifting" is typically directed by fingertip touches on dials, stalks, levers and buttons.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' 2014 and 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokees were built with what's known as a monostable shifter. The shifter typically rests in the middle of three positions. The driver directs the shifter fore and aft to cycle electronically through park, reverse, neutral, drive and low.

FCA and California investigators are studying what caused Yelchin's 2015 Grand Cherokee to roll backward on his sloped driveway. He was found by friends outside his vehicle with the engine running at 1 a.m. on June 19, fatally pinned against a gatepost.

In April, FCA recalled more than 811,000 Grand Cherokees from the 2014-15 model years and 2012-14 Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 sedans in the United States equipped with monostable shifters. On Thursday, June 23, FCA added 13,092 2014 Maserati Quattroporte and Ghibli sedans to the recall list.

By the end of last week, FCA had sent its dealers a software upgrade designed to ensure that Grand Cherokees in a gear other than park would not move if the driver's-side door was open. FCA also would install additional warnings to alert drivers that their vehicles were not in park.

Earlier, FCA told owners to read their manuals to familiarize themselves more fully with how the shift mechanism is intended to work.

Familiarity hasn't always been a challenge in shifting an automobile into drive or park. But style, electronics and the battle for space on the dash and center console have changed the shifter's shape and the way it is operated.



One consequence of replacing the old-style mechanical linkage from the shifter to the transmission with smaller, faster and more precise electronic systems is that drivers no longer shift intuitively. Nor can they seamlessly transition between brands of cars as they once did.

While Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 102 requires the gear sequence -- known as PRNDL (PRIN'-duhl) -- to be the same in all vehicles, no rules govern how a shifter must look and perform.

FCA replaced monostable shifters with electronic, gated devices that provide a mechanical feel beginning with the Charger and 300 in 2015 and the Grand Cherokee in 2016.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in April that it had received more than 300 complaints, including reports of 121 crashes, of vehicles that had rolled away, some striking buildings, drivers or other cars. FCA said at the time it was aware of at least 41 injuries potentially related to the design.

Yelchin's was the first death reported to be linked to the defect.

NHTSA, which upgraded a probe into the rollaway injuries and complaints in February, said in April that the shifter was "clearly a safety issue" leading to hundreds of crashes and dozens of injuries.

The updated software package sent to FCA dealers requires technicians to reprogram the vehicle's power control module, transmission control module, radio frequency hub and instrument panel cluster.

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[Tyvokka]

They aren't complicated nor are people too stupid.

The use of the shifter is not intuitive. It is a design flaw just like airbuses.

[SeaComms]

Hmm.. if in drive press the button and push the lever forward 3 positions and let go. Why is that not intuitive? I call stupidity on behalf of the owners. Notice I did not call them drivers as this would indicate some form of knowledge of what they were doing......

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[Wazza D]

Funny thing is, my Mercedes SLK has this type of shift and I didn't even notice until this come up.
For two years now, I have just got in and driven the bloody thing!
But it's not only the transmission and control systems that are automatic, it's the lights, the wipers, the park brake the window position and much more, and probably some stuff I've forgotten or am not aware of.
The point is, if I didn't have these features in it, I wouldn't give a flying f@ck!
So driverless cars are going to improve driving skills big time aren't
they?

[Johnboy]

Why the fuck would you get out of a car running or not and not set the park brake. I know American's have a bad habit of just putting a car in park and walking away. If he set the park brake then even if it was in drive/reverse it couldnt move. My JK has a Clutch interlock so you cant start the car without the clutch depressed. It is an annoying feature that luckily broke but now my cruise control wont work. All because some retard started the car in gear and it ran someone over. Unfortunately it seems we need to be protected from ourselves because some people cant get through the day without fucking something up. I feel that is why there seem to be so many stupid people around us now days because we are messing with nature preventing them from dying.

[AusTac]

The thing with other/similar shifters and cars is they are all fitted with electric handbrakes with seatbelt and door switches, so if the car sees the belt off then the door open and its still in a gear other than park it has the ability to clamp on the park brake via the body control module, the cherokee has a manual foot brake

It is a design flaw, the engineers have to cater for the simplest of simpletons, but really, with all the visual and audiotory cues you get when the cars not in park its not that hard...

Going to be intresting to see what the white coats come up with the remedy the issue

[Wazza D]

This was the go!
The pinnacle of shift technology on Valiants and other Chrysler cars.
Shouldn't be able to miss that park lever!