It’s being reported that Toyota currently has an Electric Vehicle (EV) prototype that will feature a “manual transmission” that will, if nothing else, will act as a placebo for automotive owners that are perhaps still holding on to the past.
According to the WSJ, the gear shift in the Toyota EV prototype that is installed in the vehicle only mimics the feel that you get from driving a manual transmission. Again, it isn’t connected to anything, but thrashing it around like you would in a car with a gear shift, but all the noise – that includes the engine revs and noises – can all be heard from the car’s speakers, provided through an elaborate set of digital smoke and mirrors. And by that, we mean that’s it is being emulated through software.
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Heck, Toyota even made it so that the EV prototype will also pretend to flood and stall out if you mess up with the control. All in the name of providing the driver with the complete experience and feeling that they messed up.
But again, that’s just it. As an EV, the vehicle is technically devoid of all the traditional mechanical parts. There is no engine, no drive shaft, and no other gears. To give a very simple and rudimentary explanation, EVs simply have an inverter, a drivetrain, and an electric motor that draws power from the onboard battery.
Toyota’s engineers says that they’re simply trying to razzle and dazzle potential customers with the fake stick shift and engine noises. However, and as The Verge so succinctly puts it, it is very unlikely that people would be impressed by a technology that served as the bedrock and foundation of every driving simulator that you can find in video game arcades till this day, let alone one that is now being placed in an EV. And before you ask: yes, video game arcades still exist.
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