Here's A Video Of A Man Selecting Reverse At 70mph For Some Reason

Despite all logic and common sense pointing in the opposite direction to this course of action, a man who runs a YouTube vlog has put his car into reverse while driving at 70mph on the freeway

Matt Kimberley

24 Jan 2017

We don’t want to burst your bubble too soon, but this doesn’t end with a huge bang and bits of gearbox littering the road. The thing that does happen is arguably, for anyone not already an expert on the subject, even more surprising.

After previous videos showing what happens when you push the start/stop button while driving and what happens when you toss the key fob out of the window while driving, the man behind AutoVlog has apparently been getting loads of requests to see what happens when you put a car in reverse while travelling at 70mph. Forwards.

Frankly, we’d either have told people to get stuffed or we’d have bought an old scrap-ready beater to try it out with. The fact that he tries this on the public road at 70mph in a modern, automatic Ford Fusion – that’s the Mondeo to us – shows either foreknowledge of the end result or a massive ignorance of the risks. But hey, we’re not the police.

SPOILER ALERT. When he shifts into reverse, what happens is… nothing at all, apart from the rear-view camera coming online via the central screen. The gearbox stays in neutral. The fact that there are safeguards in place to stop morons doing this isn’t so surprising, but the lack of sirens, klaxons, panicked dashboard light displays or even so much as a gentle prod to tell you you’re being a tit is unexpected.

Safe to say this might not happen with all automatic cars. Possibly not even all automatic Fords. If you try it in a manual then you might just win yourself a Darwin award.

Comments

I’ve done this in a ‘16 Fusion, ‘16 Durango, and ‘16 Equinox. Coincidentally, all rental cars… Anyways, they all behaved similarly. Park or Reverse just didn’t happen with enough forward speed. Once they slow down to barely anything they lock up, though. This is not suggestable for an older vehicle, though. For example, I drove an ‘04 Sunfire at 50 and then put it in reverse. It locked up the front tires.

Now do it in a manual and see what happens

spoiler alert nothing happens

Modern cars have electronically controlled transmissions so yes, the transmission will simply ignore your request. And even in an older non electronic transmission the end result is just the engine stalling out. Once the engine stalls, the transmission has no hydraulic pressure and simply acts like it is in neutral.

AlexKersten
next beater test

This was as disappointing as the reveal of the 2018 mustang

The 2018 mustang is good, why disappointing?

That’s the beauty of electronically controlled gearboxes. The ZF 8HP boxes do the same (though I’m not brave enough to prove it with mine…). If you shift from D->R/P or R->D/P, it will shift to neutral and wait for the vehicle to come to a stop before going to the selected gear. No more shifting into drive while still rolling backward, and no more slamming into park. Brilliant.

Great, Now do it in a manual and watch the destruction.

Pretty sure you can’t do it. It would just make a grinding noise but you can’t actually put it in gear because the cogs are rotating in the opposite direction.