5.3.10 Tiptronic: automatic shifting and vehicle control
Originally this idea belonged to Porsche Company. Engineers and designers wondered what if the driver of a car with automatic transmission was given the opportunity to choose gears on his own. Having done minor operational and design improvements, we got a very interesting mode of operation of the automatic transmission: it seems that the driver himself switches gears, but there is no clutch pedal. Though, there is a feeling of complete control over the car.
Having picked up such an interesting solution, all car manufacturers started installing Tiptronic automatic transmissions on their cars. Some manufacturers went further - control in “manual mode” was transferred to paddle shifters, thus making it akin to ordinary road cars with sports cars.
Note
A characteristic external feature of the automatic transmission with Tiptronic is the additional position of the shift selector, which can be moved forward/backward or to the right/left and the availability of “+” and “-” icons on the selector panel, which means gear shifting “up” and “down” correspondingly.
Figure 5.24 Example of the selector for switching the operating modes of automatic transmission with Tiptronic system.
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