[no_whereman]

Interesting article that shows BMW's influence of its "monostable" shifter on the rest of the industry.

Interestingly, in the i3, BMW uses the convention of pushing the gear selector forward for "D" and backward for "R", which makes perfect sense, but in the rest of its lineup, forward for "R" is still the convention. (Not sure which convention the new i4 and iX have).

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news...pphireappshare

[paquet]

Intriguing article - thank you. I didn't know of the BMW influence on the industry.

I always figured it was because the R is like a regular manual transmission in the BMW's - ie, forward.
Plus pushing back on the column is a more natural motion to go into forward drive - and accordingly, pushing the column forward is more difficult to accidentally engage - so you can't go into reverse accidentally.

I do dislike the 'nub' like that on the Prius.

[BMWCCA1]

If you think of the e-shifter as being no different than any other PRNDL automatic selector, except that you start in Neutral, not Park, then it makes perfect sense.

For decades if you're coming from drive into Reverse in an automatic you push the shift selector forward, then pull bak to go into Drive. Everyone else is wrong!

[no_whereman]

Originally Posted by BMWCCA1

If you think of the e-shifter as being no different than any other PRNDL automatic selector, except that you start in Neutral, not Park, then it makes perfect sense.

For decades if you're coming from drive into Reverse in an automatic you push the shift selector forward, then pull bak to go into Drive. Everyone else is wrong!

True, indeed. I do recognize the PRNDL legacy and perhaps manufacturers are reluctant to change this sequence for fear that it may cause confusion or worse, accidents, since people are so used to shifting under this pattern.

But after having driven an i3 for two years and now getting back to an ICE BMW and re-adapting myself to the traditional gear selector, it makes me appreciate the i3 gear pattern as I got used to that almost immediately and found it to be more intuitive.