Car Designers Can’t Resist Fiddling with Automatic Transmissions

Back when cars only had three speeds manual and reverse, the gearshift possibilities were minimal. You have at least a one in four chance of getting it right. But after the automatic transmission was popularized in the 1950s, the controls for gear selection became a matter of design and ergonomics.

In 1971, the Department of Transportation mandated automation to use the PRNDL layout—say “prindle”. The impetus for this law, like many other auto regulations, dates back to the 1965 book Not Secure at Any Speed, in which Ralph Nader called out General Motors, Studebaker, and Rambler for using a confusing transmission design that placed Reverse after Drive. Nader cited accidents resulting from drivers missing the desired gear and accelerating in the wrong direction. The PNDLR pattern is dangerous, he insists. Plus, that’s not a pleasant thing to say.

It remains a matter of debate today. In 2016, Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin died when he was hit by his Jeep after failing to secure the vehicle properly in Park due to a confusing shifter design. The accident led to the recall of more than one million vehicles and the installation of software that places them in Park when the driver’s door is opened. Finally, parent Fiat Chrysler Automobiles redesigned the affected models to incorporate shifters with a traditional PRNDL feel.

Despite the seemingly obvious driver benefits of keeping shift patterns consistent across cars and makes, designers couldn’t stop playing with their alphabet soup. Today, the mechanical connection that used to limit how odd the company could be with its shifters is gone, and the shift-by-wire gear selector gives the automaker added interior design flexibility since there is no physical link between the shifter and transmission. But freedom means PRNDL sometimes scatters like a fallen shelf of Scrabble tiles. The result is some weird configuration, like this one: