Could Toyota’s New Automatic Gearbox Be The Perfect Manual Replacement?

Even the best automatic gearboxes have their flaws - after all, a car can only know what you’re doing now, not what your next move is, unlike when you’re using a manual. Toyota reckons its new transmission solves that problem.

Dubbed Direct Automatic Transmission (DAT), Toyota says the tech has been developed “to be faster than manuals”. Not one to make claims without backing them up, Toyota has just put a GR Yaris equipped with an eight-speed DAT through its paces at the fifth round of the Japanese Super Taikyu series.

So, what makes it different from any other automatic gearbox? According to Hirokai Ishiura, driver of the GR Yaris, said: “DAT senses when you’re braking fully and downshifts for you to prepare for the next acceleration. It anticipates the actions ahead, just as we normally do when driving.

“A standard [automatic] would head into the corner without changing and only recognize that acceleration is needed when you floor the gas pedal, dropping a gear. This creates a massive time lag.”

As we move towards an all-electric future, why now? According to Naohiko Saito, the GR Yaris’ chief engineer and the man currently developing the DAT, the aim is to “expand the reach of motorsports.”

Surely the idea is also to trickle down the tech into its GR road cars at some stage. If you’re looking to buy a GR Yaris right now (excluding the weird FWD, CVT-equipped version Japan gets), you can only have it with three pedals and a gearstick, and the GR86’s current slushbox isn’t even worth considering.

Manual-only may be the enthusiast's dream, but Toyota does need to make a continued business case for GR models. It cites Japan’s National Police Agency statistics of 70 per cent of newly-passed drivers in the country taking an automatic-only test, and 98.6 per cent of new cars sold in Toyota’s home market are equipped with an auto according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association,

Conveniently, recent rumours suggest the GR Yaris will be updated to include an eight-speed automatic in its line-up. Put two-and-two together, and there’s a chance we could be seeing the DAT appear fairly soon.

If this new auto paves the way for more combustion-engine GR models going forward too, it can only be a good thing…