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

If you do it in a manual then you might just win yourself a Darwin award… Best sentence I’ve read all day.

That’s actually dumb. What if your brakes fail on a downhill? The electric handbrake won’t let you engage it, the electronically controlled transmission won’t either. How do you stop? Being able to shift to reverse while going forward is a safety feature as it slows down or stops the car. Sure it might blow up your gearbox in the process, but better to do that than crash and die.

Solution: buy a manual ;).

There is this fancy little computer thingie mer jigger in the car that stops it from actually selceting revs as it is done my wire but if it was and older cable shift auto then the result would be much different dont ya think?

When I had my 5th gen prelude (my first manual)I accidentally went from 3rd to reverse and it didn’t even try to go in or grind it’s a safety features figured it was in most car manual automatic or what have you

Saw this experiment on mythbusters, not surprised

Accidentally did this in an automatic commodore and it locked up the back wheels and sparks where flying out of the back of the car. My mother was terrified (she was driving) and my dad was terrifying (his car, not very happy).

I have a 2001 mercedes e class. I tried the same thing with my automatic transmission. Nothing happened, so what’s your point? Too advanced technology? It’s normal, it’s not a stick transmission to force it. Try whit a stick. Remove the fuse from the ABS so you can lock brakes and put reverse at 70mph and then release the clutch. See what happens then 😂😂😂😂