The modern automotive experience offers a growing array of control mechanisms, extending beyond multimedia, climate control, and lighting systems to encompass how drivers select their driving mode – particularly with the increasing prevalence of automatic transmissions.
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While innovations in manual transmissions typically focus on refinements to the gearshift lever’s design or placement, automatic transmission controls have opened up a much broader range of possibilities.
What might appear as a 21st-century trend – modernizing the automatic transmission shifter – actually began in the mid-20th century.
As early as the mid-1900s, U.S. Automotive giants such as Chrysler, Mercury, Packard, and AMC experimented with replacing the traditional mechanical lever with button-operated controls. Lacking a unified standard at the time, each manufacturer arranged the gear selection scheme in its own way.
This proliferation of disparate solutions ended in 1966 when the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a specific rule known as “Standard Gear Quadrant For Automotive Vehicles.” This document established a strict sequence – “P-R-N-D-L” – which has remained largely unchanged to this day.
Initially, this requirement applied only to vehicles owned by government entities, but it later became a universal standard. The core idea behind the rule was straightforward: a neutral gear position must be included between reverse (R) and drive (D).
In Europe, the “L” position, less common, indicated low-gear operation, useful for towing heavy trailers or recreational vehicles.
It’s important to note that this standard did not prohibit button-operated gear controls. Such systems, alongside traditional levers, were occasionally offered, but the new rule permanently standardized the sequence of gear-shifting modes.
This requirement remains in effect today, despite the increasingly unconventional forms modern automotive gear shifters are taking. For example, rotary dials or small electronic levers are now common, where engaging “D” or “R” is merely an electrical impulse, impossible to confirm visually by assessing the physical lever position.
Despite technological advancements, the rule requiring two movements to transition from “R” to “D” remains relevant, ensuring the preservation of the neutral function.
This principle applies to controls mounted on the steering column, which have been a signature feature of Mercedes-Benz for many years and have recently been adopted by Renault.
Taking this even further, Tesla has eliminated the physical gear shifter altogether. It is now virtual, displayed on the touchscreen as a car symbol that must be swiped forward (“D”) or backward (“R”). Notably, NHTSA has yet to raise any safety concerns regarding this virtual control concept.
However, the simplicity and ergonomics of automatic transmission controls remain subjects of debate. Some consumer advocacy organizations in the U.S., such as *Consumer Reports*, rigorously evaluate this parameter and incorporate it into final vehicle ratings.
NHTSA recently received numerous complaints regarding rotary gear selectors in vehicles from the Stellantis group. This represents somewhat surprising, as nearly identical solutions have been used by Ford, Jaguar, and Land Rover without similar backlash.
