People are just realising why automatic gearbox positions are arranged P-R-N-D
Drivers who have automatic cars will be well used to the layout of the gearbox and will be well-versed on the positions of the gears.
In most vehicles the gears are from front to back, Park, Reverse, Neutral and Drive or P-R-N-D as they are printed on the gearbox.
And while many won't have questioned this, one confused driver wondered why the reverse gear must be moved forward instead of backwards in automatic cars.
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On reddit a user asked why 'the gears sequence in automatic transmission cars is almost always PRND?' And on the HonestJohn website, one driver asked an expert: "Do you have a rational explanation why to select Reverse in an automatic gearbox, the shifter must be moved toward the front of the car and to select Drive the shifter must be moved to the rear of the car?
"This is completely the reverse of how my brain dictates it ought to be i.e. Drive should be forward and Reverse should be backwards.
"I'm guessing it has something to do with Americans and I do realise that not every manufacturer does this, but I cannot get my head around the rationale that dictated it."
It seems that he was right in his assumption that it is an American layout that has carried over to these shores. And expert David Ross was able to explain the reasoning behind the gearbox layout.
He said: "As with many conventions of how cars are laid out and operate, the P-R-N-D layout of automatic transmissions has evolved from a mixture of experimentation, legislation and eventual hegemony.
"Many of the earliest automatic cars from influential US manufacturers used the P-N-D-L-R layout, with Drive, Low and Reverse grouped together and R in the rearmost position as you suggest.
"However, numerous incidents and accidents attributed to drivers accidentally shifting between L and R positions eventually resulted in the P-R-N-D layout becoming a Federal Law in 1971, after Ralph Nader's famous book Unsafe At Any Speed highlighted the issue."
He explained that the neutral gear was positioned between the Reverse and the Drive gears to reduce accidents as it makes it more difficult to accidentally shift into reverse when you mean to go forwards or vice versa.
David also said that having the Park gear in the uppermost position actually made sense practically in years gone by. US vehicles originally used column shifters and that meant the transmission lever was a long column stalk.
He added: "With the vehicle in Park the column shifter would be in its uppermost position, making it easy for the driver to enter or exit the vehicle and making it clear from outside the vehicle that it was safely in Park."
He also noted that while manufacturers selling in other countries could change the layout, it would 'go against the experience of virtually every driver on the road'.
Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin was killed by his own car in 2016 and it was later uncovered that the Jeep Cherokee, had been under a recall notice from Fiat Chrysler. In a report about the recalls the company said it was due to: "Drivers erroneously concluding that their vehicle’s transmission is in the ‘park’ position may be struck by the vehicle and injured if they attempt to get out of the vehicle while the engine is running and the parking brake is not engaged,”
More than one million vehicles were recalled Fiat Chrysler, with 41 injuries and 212 crashes attributed to the problem.
