Ford Patents A Manual Gear Shifter For EVs
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Stupid.
Build the car on its own merits.
After reading the article, I agree.
If you're going to put a stick shift in an electric car, at least make it functional, instead of just hindering the performance of the car. (Like use different-sized motors for different gears or something.)
This is just as dumb as CVTs that do fake shifts because of idiots who freak out when they see their engine holding a certain RPM 'cause they don't understand how they work. Reminds me of the early days of the automobile where they considered attaching a fake horse head to the front of the vehicle:
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Is this just pointless noise or is it also a pointless temporary drop in acceleration?
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It would be nice if it changed the amount of regen (engine braking) and acceleration. Just like downshifting into a corner and powering out of it. I've never driven an ev, so idk if it would help with driving performance. I drove a manual for over a decade and I'm over it. I'll have fun driving anything really. I like to hit the tricky apex on the onramp every morning. The people riding my ass end up about a 1/4 mile behind me pretty quickly because they don't understand how to drive.
Gears are important with an internal combustion engine because at low revs they have less torque and the high end you run out of speed headroom, so if you're going slowly you can boost your acceleration by changing the gear ratio and when you near your maximum rpm, you can change up to boost your acceleration.
It's pleasing because you regain the ability to accelerate and it feels nice to be able to press the pedal and feel the acceleration of the car.
In an EV you can do that at absolutely any time, it doesn't depend on what you do with your other hand or your other foot, so there's never any delay at all between a decision and a zoom.
This is why an EV is so much fun to drive for me.
In an EV the accelerator pedal just never feels spongy and unresponsive. It was never the preparation for acceleration that I enjoyed, it was the acceleration. I test drove some EVs that have a drive mode you can select that replicates the feel of an ICE car off the line. I characterise this as spongy and unresponsive and I don't know why anyone likes it at all.
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What exactly can they parent here? Hyundai already make the software and SIM racers have been making the hardware for like a decade now.
Don't get me wrong it sounds fun. This just doesn't seem novel enough to validate a patent.
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Gears are important with an internal combustion engine because at low revs they have less torque and the high end you run out of speed headroom, so if you're going slowly you can boost your acceleration by changing the gear ratio and when you near your maximum rpm, you can change up to boost your acceleration.
It's pleasing because you regain the ability to accelerate and it feels nice to be able to press the pedal and feel the acceleration of the car.
In an EV you can do that at absolutely any time, it doesn't depend on what you do with your other hand or your other foot, so there's never any delay at all between a decision and a zoom.
This is why an EV is so much fun to drive for me.
In an EV the accelerator pedal just never feels spongy and unresponsive. It was never the preparation for acceleration that I enjoyed, it was the acceleration. I test drove some EVs that have a drive mode you can select that replicates the feel of an ICE car off the line. I characterise this as spongy and unresponsive and I don't know why anyone likes it at all.
I guess sometimes I want decreased pedal input to slow the car down more than other times, and sometimes I want increased pedal input to accelerate more than others. Traction control solves this for the most part though. I'll have to get ahold of an ev and see what it's like. Winter driving is one of the times where I did prefer a manual so that lifting the throttle didn't mean losing control, but I guess I've never had a car with modern traction control either.
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I'll reserve my judgement until I try one. I've had my Porsche 914 for 20 years, and have had a plethora of other manuals alongside it. I am skeptical, but willing to hope the experience can be emulated.
When my engine finally blows, I'll consider a conversion to electric doe the old girl.
I don't see how it can be worthwhile without a clutch pedal though since that is the heart of the manual experience. This is just adding a handheld input that modifies the accelerator response in a way that seems to mimic the quirks of an entirely different mechanical system (that being the paddle style shifters of automatic transmissions, not actual manuals). These at least served some purpose by giving the driver more control over shift points. Now imagine you never drove a manual or used paddle shifters in the first place, which is becoming the norm.
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I don't see how it can be worthwhile without a clutch pedal though since that is the heart of the manual experience. This is just adding a handheld input that modifies the accelerator response in a way that seems to mimic the quirks of an entirely different mechanical system (that being the paddle style shifters of automatic transmissions, not actual manuals). These at least served some purpose by giving the driver more control over shift points. Now imagine you never drove a manual or used paddle shifters in the first place, which is becoming the norm.
I take it you never drove a VW autostick.
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I take it you never drove a VW autostick.
Correct, I have not. But I also doubt Ford is intending to specifically copy the niche VW autostick from 50 years ago to appeal to such hypothetical customers. This is all getting a bit silly, we barely even have sedans and stations wagons anymore, we practically lost physical buttons and are stuck with privacy invading software, but somehow this silliness makes the cut?
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Correct, I have not. But I also doubt Ford is intending to specifically copy the niche VW autostick from 50 years ago to appeal to such hypothetical customers. This is all getting a bit silly, we barely even have sedans and stations wagons anymore, we practically lost physical buttons and are stuck with privacy invading software, but somehow this silliness makes the cut?
Dude. If they're trying, at least it's an effort to have both worlds. It won't happen on the first few gens. But if a visceral analog for shifting comes about, I'll be happy.
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Hyundai already has one, and they just showed off a e-hydraulic-hand-brake for doing drifting/skids too.
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Interesting, but feels like abuse of the patent system, and feels pointless.
I drive the earliest highway-capable electric car, a MIEV from 2011. It has a "manual gear stick". Gear B gives hard acceleration and hard regenerative braking. D gives medium. C gives minimal. Why the letters are out of sequence, I don't know.
Something that's been rinsed and repeated over the history shouldn't be patentable any more.
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