Fiat Chrysler’s ‘Confusing’ Gear Shifter Has Caused Over 100 Crashes
USA’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has significantly expanded its investigation into the apparently ‘confusing’ gear shifter found in around 400,000 Grand Cherokees. The organisation is now looking at 856,000 vehicles in total, covering 3.6-litre V6 Grand Cherokees from 2014 and 2015, Dodge Chargers from 2012-2014 and Chrysler 300s from the same period.
The issue is that the electronic shifter - a part made by German firm ZF - returns to the middle position after each selection. It doesn’t feature a park button either, and according to the NHTSA, these two factors have resulted in numerous owners inadvertently exiting their vehicles with the car is still in drive.
The organisation reckons that 306 roll-away incidents involving Grand Cherokees can be attributed to confusion over the selector, allegedly leading to 117 crashes and 28 injuries in the USA. The NHTSA stated that their testing revealed “poor tactile and visual feedback to the driver, increasing the potential for unintended gear selection.”
It’s worth mentioning that the cars in question do have an audible and visual warning that appears if the driver’s door is opened while the vehicle is not in park.
A recall has not yet been issued, but Fiat Chrysler Automobiles says that it’s cooperating with the NHTSA’s investigations.
Source: Detroit News
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
I mean… you could just read the manual. That should tell you exactly what to do. And if your not sure then take a lil extra care to make sure youre in park. And if you’re still not sure, use the parking brake. I mean. Im just saying though. This could be avoided if ppl would just pay more Attention and be more careful.
I’m a valet so I’ve driven a lot of cars that have this gear selector and as much as i hate it and think its a horribly designed piece; If you manage to leave a car in drive and not notice it rolling away, maybe its not the gear selector. Maybe its just the driver. Just my 2 cents
All these crashes were caused by European immigrants who couldn’t figure out how to work the Byzantine contraption that is the American automatic transmission.
I don’t know if I’m more surprised by the people who leave the car without putting it in Park, or at least in Neutral, and blame the manufacturer for their own fault, or a government body that opens an investigation on it. Doesn’t America have bigger problems than this?
How many times has it happened in an Audi a8, I think the problem here is murica
So its an Auto, makes noises and gives optical noises if you leave it while not in park. PLUS there is a handbrake and still people are too dumb?! How about thinking about what you are doing instead of suing everyone else…
Things like this makes you want big brands to hurry up with autonomous cars so stupid people can stop crashing.
only in ‘Murica…. Never had such a problem with my ML350 whose gear selector returns to original position after selecting gears..
Don’t know about this one but my 14 Ram with the dial goes into park when the ignition is turned off.
That said all new vehicles use electronic shifters even if it’s on the column. I personally like the dial and have had no issues.
So now people can’t even drive automatics…
Over 100 people are idiots.. that’s all this proves..