During one of my visits to the east coast, I rented a Subaru Tribeca.
I drove the car out of the rental car agency and realized a few seconds later that my car was stuck in 1st gear. It took me a few frustrating minutes to realize what had happened.
Here is a photo of the gear shift and let me know if you can spot the problem.
As you can see, I pulled the stickdown, glanced at the legend and snapped the stick to the left inadverently putting the vehicle into manual drive! Later in the day, I did the "fool's test" and got two other people to dive the car. Both did exactly the same. So it was definitely not me :)
Here is a simple change that can prevent this issue
Simply move the P/R/N/D decal from left to the right. That way, a user will push-pull the stick up-down and not be tempted to push it to the left.
And return the car to the rental agency with a complain of a bad gear box...
5 comments:
hey.. just to say.. that ur solution to the problem only transfers it from the mind-hand co-ord to the visually impairing :).. ur gear shift i think wud obstruct ur view of the lable.. and increase the slope of ur learning curve..
how about turning the +,- bar by 90 degrees and placing it at the bottom. This way we can leave the labels on the left?
Splitting an Atom,
I did give the "visibility of the decals" a thought
(1) If you actually sit in the Tribeca you will realize that the gear throw is extremely short and hence in any gear position, at least three "states" are clearly visible.
(2) This does not change the learning curve at all. The standard P-R-N-D sequence remains the same. So once you know where P and D is the rest if muscle memory.
(3) In fact the learablity is the least in the current state as one has to pull a manual out t figure out (unless you have driven a similar car before)
(4) BTW, my solution first of all the easiest and cheapest way to solve a big usability problem without having to re-engineer the gearbox. Other solutions (like Kiran's in another comment)exist
BTW, Kiran, Having the Manual bay perpendicular to the automatic bay brings in a learning curve.
The vertical bay makes the shift up and shift down very intuitive. Right-left will take that away
id agree wiht ur comment on kiran, sunil.. and with ur response to mine..... i cant say anything cuz.. i am the ignoramus of the lot here w.r.t. automatic gears..never used one.. seen yes. seen one used.. nope.. never laid my eyes on a subaru tribeca, leave alone the gearshift!LOL. but thanks..
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