Government Gearshifts? Head-scratching Shifters Shouldn't Make It to Market, Says Ex-NHTSA Head

Parking your car at Walgreens shouldn’t require a tutorial.

That’s the gist of comments made by outgoing National Highway Traffic Safety Administration administrator Mark Rosekind, who really doesn’t like fancy, overly complex automatic transmission gearshifts.

In fact, if Rosekind had his way, automakers would need a green light from the country’s road safety regulator before incorporating a new gearshift design into a production vehicle.

The administrator, who stepped down from his position on Inauguration Day, took on the role in December, 2014. With Rosekind at the helm, the agency became more involved and proactive than in years past, launching investigations and prompting recalls at a steady clip. No longer was it playing catch-up in the wake of ignition switch scandals.

In an Associated Press exit interview, Rosekind worried that the Trump administration could hold back the agency’s progress, though he admits “safety is bipartisan.”

When asked about a recent safety issue — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ monostable gearshift recall — Rosekind tacitly endorsed the idea of a standardized gearshift:

For 50 years it’s always been reactive. Unfortunately reactive means you’ve got to wait until somebody gets hurt or killed before you’re stepping in, the way the system is now. What you’re talking about is premarket approval. This is sometimes where regulation needs to go. It gives you standards, makes it predictable. If you do things opposite of what people expect, then you’re just creating vulnerabilities. If you have to train people on it or basically commit to them getting used to it, it’s much better for it to be intuitive.

Last year, FCA recalled over one million vehicles equipped with the confusing gearshift. By installing an “auto park” feature, the automaker hoped to stop the rollaway incidents behind several injuries and a high-profile death. Still, confusion seems to rein in vehicles lacking a straight-line PRNDL layout. Just recently, Ford installed an auto park feature on its Fusion sedan, which sports a rotary dial shifter.

The Trump administration has yet to name Rosekind’s successor. Time will tell if a future administrator puts the kibosh on imaginative shifters that require more than one action to engage park, or fail to signal a gear change to the perplexed driver.