Once upon a time, cars were easy to understand. You put the key in and turned the ignition and presto, the car started. If you wanted the window to roll down, you activated your "e-system" (elbow) and rolled the window down. It was a tactile experience that required visceral physical exertion. Today, however, life is not so simple. There is so much technological advancement that going from driving a 2010 model to a 2017 model can feel like going from riding a bicycle to flying a rocket ship.
Most drivers first learn this fact when they rent a car. Once behind the wheel of a newer model, they are mystified by all the changes. They feel like they should enroll in a driver's education course. Sometimes it's even hard to figure out how to turn the thing on. Progress is fine but it would be nice if our robot masters made it simple enough so that we mere organic beings (with our old-school brains) could understand their sublime workings.
We were reminded of this fact a few weeks ago when it was announced that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) was recalling 1.1 million vehicles because they employ an e-transmission that can lead to them rolling away once the driver is out of the vehicle. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began investigating 850,000 FCA vehicles in February, 2016. Around 52,000 of the autos being recalled are in Canada. Most are 2014 and 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokees, Dodge Chargers and Chrysler 300 Sedans, all of which use a monostable electronic gearshift.
The NHTSA found that the trouble arises because drivers can't always properly sense when they've put the vehicle into park. That's because the monostable e-shift goes through the normal routine of "Park, Reverse, Neutral and Drive" – but always lands back at the centre position. Drivers are told what gear they're in by indicator lights, not by feel.
The result? Confusion. According to NHTSA investigators, the "monostable shifter is not intuitive and provides poor tactile and visual feedback to the driver, increasing the potential for unintended gear selection." Or put more succinctly: it doesn't always end up in park.
That can be problematic. The NHTSA reported that it received 314 complaints and maintains that 121 crashes – 41 that led to people being hospitalized – were a result of the gearshift.
If you were looking for a metaphor that sums up the future of automotive "brain gap" you'd be hard pressed to find a better one. We've advanced so far so fast that we've managed to mess up the most idiot-proof driving system in the world: automatic transmission. That's why automatics were introduced in the first place, because drivers grew too stupid and/or lazy to work a manual transmission. In the case of the 1.1 million recalled vehicles, we've made the easiest automotive device in history (an automatic transmission gearshift) difficult.
The best way to understand the genesis of automatic transmission is to see it as the automotive equivalent of the drinking straw. Are you too lazy and clueless to lift a glass to your lips? No problem! Here's a long cylindrical tube you can inhale your Coke Zero through! Confused or intimidated by manual transmission? No problem, we've boiled it down to a four-gear knob. Is that too hard? How about a high-tech gearshift that doesn't really move but instead alerts you by indicator lights?
Cue the confusion.
So buckle up. As we cruise into the age of the autonomous vehicle, there are sure to be more technological speed bumps ahead. Don't fret. Some day, cars will drive themselves completely. When that happens, our robot masters may decide to leave us all at home.
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Andrew Clark