Toyota’s First Demo 'Fake' Manual Transmission
Over a year ago Toyota made their first fake manual transmission EV vehicle, you may ask what is that?
In 2023, Toyota produced the first ‘fake manual transmission EV vehicle’ which is essentially an electric car but with a gear box and clutch. Most electric vehicles have a single-speed transmission because their electric motors don’t need more than that , Toyota proposes installing a clutch pedal and six-speed shifter. Their potential manual transmission will offer programming that gives drivers a realistic experience.
If the driver doesn’t give the car enough gas or puts the car in the wrong gear, the vehicle will shake, providing the driver with the same experience as a gas-powered manual transmission vehicle. The EV isn’t built for a manual transmission, so drivers don’t have to use it because there will be two different driving modes, an EV mode, and a faux-manual mode. It’s not official, but fake engine noises may go along with the shifting and acceleration process to make the manual transmission more realistic while driving an EV.
Also a Non-Pedal Option
We should note that we also sampled Toyota’s NeoSteer concept, which upgrades the company’s yoke-type steer-by-wire system with hand controls. Braking is via what looks a lot like a bicycle hand-brake within reach of the left hand (and another, smaller one on the right), while acceleration can be done by pushing a rotary paddle with the left thumb (or pulling with a right finger). The system seemed to work well at speed, though mastering the smooth limo-stop would take a lot of acclimation (or a bit more tuning). Lock-to-lock is 90 degrees in either direction, and the system struck us as more natural than some joystick type all-in-one hand controls (wherein steering was harder to master than acceleration or braking).
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