Does anyone else accidentally turn the radio/AC up instead of putting truck in drive?

[Kooch80]

Been there done that. Also had "guest drivers" shift into park instead of drive while backing out of driveway.

Let's face it; purely from an engineering and design standpoint, this is a very poor implementation. It will not stop me from driving the truck, but they need to change it to something else.

And for all those guys who say "it's not a problem"; there are engineering masterclasses which feed on bad designs like this. Forget the details as it's been a while, but there was one very similar to this idea in an airplane where a pilot made the wrong choice with disastrous results.

Yes there is apparently a safety mechanism built in, but I've already learned the hard way that it's not near sensitive enough. As I said; guest driver was backing out of driveway and has a bad habit (years of driving stick shift and using clutch) of not stopping completely before switching gears. So coasting slowly in reverse, drop to neutral while still moving, then drop to drive. Problem is, while still coasting slightly in reverse, he dropped into park instead of neutral. #CLUNK#. I was horrified, less than 500 km on the dial and the drivetrain was already rocked to it's core.

He didn't confuse the dial for AC/radio, he was just confused which way it had to turn to switch gears.

That sounds like an idiot problem not a design problem

 

[silver billet]

That sounds like an idiot problem not a design problem

That's because you don't know anything about design.

 

[coderman]

lol I laugh at this being mentioned in almost every YouTube review before buying the truck. It’s different and I like it. If you confuse this knob which is not even within the same instrument cluster of the center days console, you need laser eye surgery or have really puss poor hand eye coordination haha I actually like the knob and placement. Smart design actually that gets rid of a bulky behind the wheel shift lever which in the Limited trim, would get in the way of the great dash and 12” screen etc. and really opens up the center console for storage. Hope RAM keeps it.

 

[mikeru82]

Wonder is there's a safety to keep someone from accidentally going to park while on the highway.

I saw a youtube video last year of someone testing this out at highway speed. You can relax. It won't allow the transmission to shift into park at highway speeds.

Been there done that. Also had "guest drivers" shift into park instead of drive while backing out of driveway.

Let's face it; purely from an engineering and design standpoint, this is a very poor implementation. It will not stop me from driving the truck, but they need to change it to something else.

And for all those guys who say "it's not a problem"; there are engineering masterclasses which feed on bad designs like this. Forget the details as it's been a while, but there was one very similar to this idea in an airplane where a pilot made the wrong choice with disastrous results.

Yes there is apparently a safety mechanism built in, but I've already learned the hard way that it's not near sensitive enough. As I said; guest driver was backing out of driveway and has a bad habit (years of driving stick shift and using clutch) of not stopping completely before switching gears. So coasting slowly in reverse, drop to neutral while still moving, then drop to drive. Problem is, while still coasting slightly in reverse, he dropped into park instead of neutral. #CLUNK#. I was horrified, less than 500 km on the dial and the drivetrain was already rocked to it's core.

He didn't confuse the dial for AC/radio, he was just confused which way it had to turn to switch gears.

That's 100% driver error. Not a design error. You can't idiot proof everything for everyone. If the guest driver would have come to a complete stop it wouldn't have mattered what gear they shifted into. It's bad practice not to come to a complete stop before shifting from reverse into any gear, or into P. Even on a manual trans.

 

[silver billet]

That's 100% driver error. Not a design error. You can't idiot proof everything for everyone. If the guest driver would have come to a complete stop it wouldn't have mattered what gear they shifted into. It's bad practice not to come to a complete stop before shifting from reverse into any gear, or into P. Even on a manual trans.

Not really. It's a combination of user error, which should be prevented by a better design. So I'm not saying the driver didn't make a mistake, I'm saying the driver did something wrong, out of habit (which is his fault), but the bad design allowed him to do this.

Think of it. We've had decades of user interaction with knobs on the HVAC and radio. Now all of a sudden they put a third knob there in the exact same location which does something completely different, and it's a very critical piece of UI. If you turn fan down instead of radio, who cares. If you shift to park instead of drive, it can be pretty bad. So they're introducing a UI element which is far too similar to other controls, but is dangerous to get wrong.

Second thing is; the knob does have a safety mechanism in it (so they even understood/predicted the issue to some degree and attempted to mitigate it) which prevents changing gears at high speeds. OK, but it didn't work in my case. The whole truck rocked and there was a loud clunk. Whatever they're doing, it's not sensitive enough

Better designs are out there, including the standard gear shift lever. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, especially in trucks where there is room for more bulky controls. GM's shifter is electronic as well, so it can be done even without mechanical linkage.

There are also other designs, like GM's shifter in the new tahoes (push buttons).

FCA has had other issues with shifters, like the one in the 2014 Grand Cherokee which ended up killing a famous actor. Same thing there, people complain on forums about the poor design and then other guys say "it works great, problem is the user".

Fine, maybe the user is a complete idiot, but the fact that they later improved the shifter so said idiots wouldn't kill themselves proves that they had room on the table for large improvements to be made. That's the case here too, it needs improvement big time.

 

[silver billet]

Further thought; one thing that would help a lot more, is just to increase the space between the "indents", and then make them harder to move out of. They have this huge knob for shifting, but you can turn it so easily and slightly to shift gears. More resistance (make it physically harder to move knob from one drive to the next), and make the distance the knob has to turn larger too. That might help for those cases where people are driving and want to turn the fan down but grab the wrong knob.

It currently has such a weak, electronically feel to it which does not help. The control can be made stiffer to subconsciously tell the user that this is a more important control.

 

[RunsWithBeer]

On the plus side it's harder for the dog you left in the running truck to accidentally shift it into gear

 

[silver billet]

On the plus side it's harder for the dog you left in the running truck to accidentally shift it into gear

I've never seen a dog put his foot on the brake and pull a shift lever down but hey, not saying it can't happen.

 

[Le_Slacker]

On the plus side it's harder for the dog you left in the running truck to accidentally shift it into gear

I think the previous design was already pretty hard for a dog to shift....

Press and hood down brake pedal
Press/squeeze button on gear selector
Move gear selector while button is pressed

I’ve owned many dogs, I’m not sure any of them (even as a team) would have gotten this to happen

 

[Snwjnky]

I still reach for the invisible shifter. I drive a Silverado at work, own a '03 Tacoma, and my Ram.
All three shifters in different places

 

[WXman]

The dial shifter is new to me. I don't make this mistake every time, but often enough to wonder if other people do the same.

Radio? Dude I put mine in reverse when I wanted drive. A few times. I HATE the rotary dial. Nothing intuitive about it since there's no physical movement of a lever and detents.

 

[mikeru82]

Not saying it couldn't be improved. But that's absolutely true of any design. I have yet to see anything that's designed perfectly LOL. But I am saying, at least in the example you gave, that the error was 100% on the guest driver. Any argument to that is just making excuses for them.

I do like your ideas for improving it though. I wasn't a fan of the dial shifter when I first got it. But that's because it was new. I actually prefer it now, especially to the column shifter. I do like a console shifter, but it's nice to have a cavernous center console too. I only tried turning up the radio one time when I meant to shift the trans. That was in the first couple of days I owned it. My only issue with it now is when switch back and forth between my Audi with a console shifter, and my Laramie with the dial, along with cruise control controls, wiper controls, volume knob, etc... but that's another story for another time LOL.

 

[Bassinb]

I would much prefer the column shifter, however I have not had any issues confusing the dial with another control yet.

 

[RunsWithBeer]

I've never seen a dog put his foot on the brake and pull a shift lever down but hey, not saying it can't happen.

I have a pretty smart dog. She can levitate objects

 

[Le_Slacker]

I would much prefer the column shifter, however I have not had any issues confusing the dial with another control yet.

I spent a summer driving a right-hand drive manual Nissan with the gear selector on the tree, on a carribean island that wants you to drive on the left....
That was confusing for a while!

Rotary dial is a walk in the park!

 

[PurpleRT]

Nope had the dial shifter in my 14 and after a few weeks I got completely use to it. Give it time you’ll appreciate the free up space it provides.


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[Krootz]

I appreciate the space it saves a lot, but I’ve turned the damn knob the wrong way so many times on accident. A simple up/down rocker would make so much more sense to me. I don’t mind living with it, but it’s only after twisting it the wrong way in traffic that it became a real pain.

 

[silver billet]

The whole "getting used to it after X weeks" excuse should be the clue to everybody that it's not a natural/good design. You shouldn't have to get used to the shifter anymore than you should have to get used to the brake pedal. At that point, Ram has failed.

 

[Krootz]

From the very first time I turned the damn knob the wrong way, I thought about the gear selector on my 4th gen. It was a rocker switch on the column shifter. That up/down rocker would be SO much more intuitive. Up to go forward, back to go into reverse/park...maybe I’m splitting hairs here

 

[Ppkaprince98]

Yes ive mixed the knobs up. The dial shifter is just not getting in my head. Haha


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