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Now that actor Yelchin's death has finally moved Fiat-Chrysler to find a fix for their long-standing transmission selector problem, I read in NBC News that a part of the software "fix" will be an auto-park feature. So Packard was a bit ahead of the curve with the 1956 pushbutton auto-park feature?

Interesting. Deja vu again? IIRC Chrysler ads also claimed they "invented" the torque converter lockout in the early 70's to give their cars increased mileage.

Packards auto park was activated when the key was turned off and I suppose Chrysler will do the same?? IIRC, one of the articles said the Jeep engine was still running when they found him so wonder if even that would have saved him. Maybe fix it so if no one is in the seat the thing goes into park but I can see some interesting situations there too. I believe in the 70s when they came out with the rule someone had to be sitting in the seat and belts fastened before the engine would start some smaller drivers didn't weigh enough to activate the seat switch.

IMO, that stupid lever that springs back to a center position is more to blame than anything. I wonder if some of the car designers even drive their products. There was an article I read yesterday about Lincoln having a recall because of their trans buttons. Seems they put the shift button for "sport" mode designated by a big S right above a similar looking button for stopping the engine designated by a smaller S. People that were expecting to shift the transmission were hitting the wrong button and killing the engine instead. Article didn't say what they did to correct that.

Along that topic, I know that the New York Times is currently working on an article featuring the '56 Push Button transmission as I was contacted it regards to usage of the pictures here on the website. That's all I know, for now, will forward more info when I know when/if the article gets published.

The working theory with Yelchin's unfortunate death is that is stopped his car to either open the gate or check the mail, and the car rolled backwards on the steep driveway pinning him between the brick mailbox and security gate. A recall on the Jeeps is in place because of that issue where owners "think" they put the vehicle in park, but they didn't because of the design of the shifter.

I'm driving a Chrysler 300m rental with this type of automatic, and after driving it now 3 days now its still confusing to figure out if you're in D,N,R or P. It has no "feel" to it because the leveler springs back. I wouldn't buy a vehicle with this cause it's to unreliable, you've to keep looking at the screen to see where the gear leveler is.

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As I have said many times in the past, and while someone, somewhere seems to be giving Packard's electronic pushbutton transmission selector a bad rap, it was wayyyyyy ahead of its time. Way ahead.

It was actually the world's first (or one of the first) electronic anti-theft "immobilizer" devices. And it was a safety feature.

Just one more time when Packard was ahead of the rest and giving us something both creative and and a taste of the future! In this case, 21st Century technology...all the way back in the 1950s.

I was wondering if a thread was going to be started on this. As someone who has been driving an older vehicle, I was startled to experience this kind of electric gear shift lever in a new vehicle. I would like to hear others views if they have driven a 2016 bmw or one of these jeeps . It was not intuitive to shift from park to reverse or shift to park by pressing a button only. I was wondering if this would cause issues with older drivers who are used to the feel and operation of the console shifted autos in which have been all pretty much the same for twenty years or so .
I also have a fear this may cause issues in the future for young drivers who grow up experiencing only these shifters. I can see them assuming pressing a button on the side of the shifter and having the car go to park without movement of the shifter causing the same safety issue if they borrow a friends "older" car and as habbit, stop the car, press the thumb button and think the care is now in park without moving the handle thus causing injury upon exiting. What happened to a "standard" . Diddnt they learn anything with the P R N D L?

I have a 2016 BMW and didn't have any trouble getting used to putting it in park which is controlled by a separate button on top of the shift lever. The side button needs to be pressed to put the car in drive or reverse from park.

Park is also engaged from drive or reverse if the start/stop button is pushed with the motor running and a foot on the brake (this also stops the motor)

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That separate park button is more intuitive. On the Chrysler I saw demonstrated, IIRC it seemed like you have to push the knob forward and hold until the P lights up and then when the knob is released it springs back to center.

The Packard system was pretty good for the day although I guess enough people didn't like it that Packard came up with an approved procedure to remove the auto park function. Several on the forum have removed theirs too. When my auto park relay failed I installed a modern replacement relay and small switch in the original can. To take advantage of both lines of thought I modified the circuit slightly so auto park works as normal. Flip the hidden switch on the bottom of the relay and it reverts to a car without the function. You have to manually engage park by pushing the button.

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For decades I (have to) travel the world and what sounds like a varied program started to be boring like a nine-to-five job all too fast. One of several "tricks" to put color into play is to change the type of rental car. LHD or RHD, automatic or manual, preselection or double clutch transmission, motorbike, minibus or luxury car, diesel or electric power train, English or Polish, even track vehicles, brown or green - all means of modern transportation have something in common. They do what they have to do as long as I do what I have to do. Or to let, when renting one of those, that work almost autonomously.
They don't tend to suddenly burn, don't drive without command, don't suffer from exploding batteries, don't behave like moody war elephants (but sometimes like mountain goats), they stop when putting the correct pedal and (so far) never developed a life of their own while newspapers don't become tired to maintain the contrary.

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