Might as well just do it by voice command lol.

 

It’s not that we can’t figure it out, it’s just not intuitive and there’s no benefit that I can see.

 

Oh if only you knew how dumb some drivers are.........

 

Steve is correct. Change just for the sake of change's sake does not always pay off.


Well, gentlemen, with all due respect, not to bust your bubbles, but I not only have MANY years of owning, driving, reviewing, and test-driving literally hundreds of different vehicles (many of them right here on CL), but also flew different kinds of smaller aircraft, with different types of controls on them, and had Instrument and Instructor training. So I at least have some idea of how to adapt to those different controls. I don't believe in boasting or bragging, but I think I can speak with at least some authority own this subject. I did not live (or drive) my life in a vacuum. When I said that some recent transmission controls are non-intuitive and risky, like Steve, I meant exactly that.....no more, no less.

 

And carmakers say "it frees up space" and I don't really see how, most of these e-shifters take up the same amount of space as a normal shifter...

 

Not referring to you lol! I was thinking of some people whos cars I work on......

 

Oh no I was only referring to the people from the Consumer Reports survey where not understanding how to operating the drive selector caused an accident, I enjoy your reviews and point of view. I didn't mean to infer about your mental capacity whatsoever

 

I was referring to the people that were in the consumer reports survey where not understanding how to operate the drive selector caused an accident, not anybody on this board. Unless someone here literally had an accident from not understanding how to use drive mode selector in their car.

 

I like my new RX and am quickly adapting to all of the new tech, including the shifter. My (minor) issue is that no one else can drive this car without a tutorial.

 

Only really save space if they throw it on the column. But do love the space it frees up when they do go with column mounted.

 

In one sense, it does take up space, and in another, it doesn't. On the console itself, as you note, it takes up about the same amount of area-space. But the difference is that, with buttons or a rotary-dial, you don't have the lever jutting up into the vertical space above the console.. That makes it easier to lay things flat on the console if desired....or to slide your butt across the console to get in or out of the other front seat if some moron, in the parking lot, parks an inch away from your front door so you can't open or shut it enough to get in or out. I've actually had that happen a couple of times at the Metro Subway lots back when I was commuting every day.

On the balance, though, I'd rather have the daily familiarity and relative fool-proofness of the conventional fore/aft lever than the advantages of flat buttons/dials for the rare occasions that some jerk in the parking lot hems you in on one side and you have to slide across the console from the opposite door.

I don't want to deliberately shift the thread off-topic, but, on the subject of having to crawl over the console to get out from the opposite front door, I'll mention that that is one of the differences between the ever-popular high-wing-Cessna and low-wing Piper small aircraft. The small Cessnas have both a left and right door, under the wings, that allows one to enter and exit from either side...similar to an automobile two-door coupe or sedan. The small Pipers, on the other hand, have only one door, on the right, above the wing, that forces all four passengers to use it....which makes it significant more difficult to get out of the plane in an emergency. Overall, though, I liked the more stable flying-characteristics of the Pipers (which makes it easier to approach and land in a crosswind or turbulence). The smaller Cessnas, on the other hand, have a more durable spring-steel landing gear, a better-braced airframe, and are simpler to operate, using gravity-fuel-feed and sometimes not needing a separate electrical fuel pump.

 

The new design is simply bad human interface. It goes against the "muscle memory" of decades of auto design. Shifter history is littered with such bad designs. I really doubt it will last. It'll be the same as the floor key in my SAAB Turbo. A quaint memory.

 

GM has a sad history of having shifter that are not foolproof. So bad they have had to make many recalls.





https://www.autoblog.com/amp/2009/03...ifter-problem/






https://www.autoblog.com/amp/2013/01...y-shifter-mec/




https://london.ctvnews.ca/mobile/gm-...blem-1.1808468

 

@mmarchall Funny you should mention aircraft. Imagine if when you pulled up on the stick you went down, and when you pushed on the stick, you went up. That is the paradigm for the new RX shifter. Left and DOWN is Forward? Left and UP is Reverse? Sounds like it was "Opposites Day" when Lexus signed off on this shifter.

Look - we will get used to it, but it is areally dumb UX.

 

So when in neutral (which is where you are when you push left on the shifter), remind me again which direction you would push a traditional gear selector for Reverse, and which direction for Drive?

When you want to go into Drive from Reverse, which way do you move the shifter?
When you want to go into Reverse from Drive, which way do you move the shifter?

Down has ALWAYS been the direction for forward, whether the shifter is column- or console-mounted. This is not opposite day.