Shifter, "D" should be forward motion and "R" should be backward motion

nah...
What is it about this car that makes it neccessary to change the location of forward and reverse from every other car out there?

For me when I first got the car I would have liked if the shifter was laid out straight like every car with no park button. I got used to the whole thing after a couple of days.

 

As I believe one of the mods has stated in another post on this... If you have an automatic, from Park to Drive, you need to pull backwards. From Drive to Reverse, you push forward. Other the Park button being separate (and excluding B), look at the arrangement of P R N D. It's same order as a floor mounted automatic.

 

I think D and B should have been swapped. But I quickly got used to sliding to the side.

 

or like this?

 

I learned on a '53 chevy manual, 3 on the column, so first was toward me and down. Reverse was up and away. Then the '61 Dodge Dart had 3 on the floor, so first was towards me and back, reverse was toward my knee and forward, like the Chevy, but on the floor. Same with 3 Chevy pickups. That's th pattern you're thinking of, but not many of us who internalized it are still driving.

But for me, there was also the Volvo 124 and the Microbus with the spaghetti shifter. You pushed away from you for first, and for reverse, well, reverse was always an adventure. My wife rented a Peugeot in France once, and they didn't bother to tell her how to back up. "Won pools oop on ze ring," a helpful stranger eventually explained when she needed to make a U-turn.

Airplanes, OTOH are logical -- mostly. Push the balls forward to go up (hence "balls to the wall;" pull them back to go down. Except Grumman tried to carry that through for the wing-sweep mechanism on the F111 when it was sitll the TFX. The test pilot who died thought it should have gone the other way, was what the accident board decided. GFW eventually put little wings on the sidestick control that mimiced what the real wings were doing.

And then nobody ever made another airplane with variable-sweep wings.

Be happy at least that Toyota didn't decide to make the Prius beep in drive.

Or play "Into the Air Junior Birdmen!"

 

does it really matter what the arrangement of the shifter is? my god, some people complain about the most trivial things. Next thing you tell me the tune/power knobs on the stereo should be swapped. And besides, on a normal automatic, R is always higher than D. When you wanna shift into D, you always pull the shifter towards you.

 

They should just have buttons

 

The shift pattern is okay, but my big adjustment was the electronic nature of the shift process. I'm used to mechanical detents, long shift levers and clunks in and out of gears across the steering column. The Prius's quick short stroke (slapping?) movements were almost intimidating at first.

The audible reverse warning is still a bit unnerving for me, but I've actually appreciated the sound due to the quietness of the engine. The sound did what it is suppose to do, remind me I'm in reverse.

tom

 

But I don't like wearing gloves when I drive.

 

Buttons are not plain. They should use hooks and eyes to avoid offending the Amish.

Tom

 

Yep-yep-yep.

 

Even with buttons there would still be problems concerning button placement, i.e. drive vs. park. IMHO I think buttons would look hot in the Prius.

 

+1 for the buttons! I think there should be 4: P, R, N, & D! N would totally disconnect the driveline so it can be towed 4 wheels down behind an RV!

 

I agree completely, they really didn't have much UI thought involved in the transmission. You'll see though that there are people used to it and fanboys that don't agree. I think they really wanted a joy stick, but didn't think about natural movements. The RND works much better if they are positions and there is a P position. I don't really know what they were thinking when they took the Park out of the control and added another button. I got used to it after about 6 months

That would also be a good possible interface. All buttons or none. It should be on the right side though, as that is the traditional shifter hand. The car pictured does have a couple of problems. There is no P(ark) button did they not have one? Plus R(everse) because Right starts with an R should be on the right also it is for backing up so it should be in the back.

The prius is built so the engine is always geared to the wheels. Neutral is only for low speeds where MG1 and MG2 are allowed to freely rotate. At higher speeds this can cause potential damage. Without physical changes a towing mode could be added which turned the engine to protect the hsd.

 

Many American car manufacturers tried buttons shifters then abandoned them. I've used them and they aren't as convenient to use as a lever. It's easier to select the range you want without looking if you have a lever.

 

It's the same as every other car. I agree it's wrong, it's not intuitive, but now that every other car is like that in the world it IS intuitive. For them to make it the other way would be against what we're all used to and not helpful. Kind of like keyboards. Apparently QWERTY keyboards are inferior to some other type but now that we're all used to them that's just how it is.