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Comment by gumby | Hacker News Reader

Why do cars with automatic transmission have shifter rods at all? A button would be sufficient.

I don’t know if the shifter is strictly necessary but I am glad it takes two actions to shift, especially for reverse and forward. It’s also really nice having the shifter because it’s this relatively big control surface I can grab and control without looking down. I have that exact model of BMW and I often use the shifter to quickly put the car into sports mode for overtaking. They have another button to do something similar but there is no way I can do that while overtaking. The move shifter left maneuver is easy to do while keeping my eyes on the road.

Exactly. Pressing the mode selector switch a few times to get it to sport/sport+ takes much more looking down compared to pushing the gear selector left while you keep eyes on the road to think about a quick overtake. And this is for cars that aren't 90% touch-screen controlled like some recent models from other brands.

>pushing the gear selector left

Pushing the gear selector left is actually terrible because (at least in the old BMW shifter) the cables inside the selector are way too tight and they will wear down as you move the shifter.

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showpost.php?s=9c79f1c5ddd4ce...

Yes I prefer the larger control surface even if it is easier to bump than a button.

On my F31 (which I no longer have) I thought doing that just put the gearbox in sport mode, but to change the engine response you still need the buttons. Need to try it in my G series sometime.

On my G20 it's the same - sport mode and S transmission mode are two separate things.

You two are right. The sports mode button does more than the shifter tilt on the F30 as well but the more aggressive gearing is usually all I need to overtake.

It's really nice to be able to shift the car into neutral when it isn't working. An electronic system that can't be shifted out of park if it's broken is a nuisance. One of my Hondas lacks a mechanical neutral control in the cabin, but there is a shaft you can turn on the side of the transmission under the hood to force it into neutral if you need to push it out of a garage or something like that.

Don't forget Toyota's "unintended acceleration" fiasco. One way out of that situation is to shift to neutral and old-school shifters usually let you do that without engaging the button by just pushing the shifter up.

I recently drove a car with a shifting "dial", and if I had to shift to neutral in an emergency there would be a lot of fumbling.

Problem with buttons is that, unless you design things carefully it might be too easy to press the wrong button and go the wrong way.

Newer Hondas do come with button shifters that seem to be well thought out. It's hard to describe in words, but every button has a distinct deliberate and intuitive action such that you're unlikely to shift to the wrong gear:

- Can shift to P or R iff the brake is pressed.

- R is a pull-type button which is different from all other gear buttons.

- N is, well, an unremarkable button.

- D is at the bottom in a separate recess.

Sports cars like Ferrari 488 don’t have one. You press a button to go in reverse, and use the F1 paddle shift behind the steering wheel to go in drive mode (one push of the up gear lever) or neutral (simultaneous push of both levers).

For familiarity, especially since many automatic shifters have a pseudo-manual mode to shift up and down.

also in case the manufacturer shares the center console part with models that have fully manual transmission.

a lot of cars these days come with something other than a shifter knob to control the transmission. buttons, dials, you name it

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