The new Honda CR-V that will soon be launched in India (for the first time with diesel engine) will likely bring a new technology to the market—the push button gear-shift (photo). One of the reasons is that automakers, globally, are trying to find more space on the centre console, for gadgets such as smartphones. Rather than a lever, this shifter employs four buttons—P (park), R (reverse), N (neutral), D/S (drive/sport)—to change gears.
We have driven this version of the CR-V and found it is easy to adapt to—the push buttons are positioned within easy reach of the driver’s fingers while operating the vehicle (please see https://goo.gl/jPL2Lj).
Interestingly, push-button gear-shift is not a new thing. The modern push button gear-shift technology is claimed to have been invented by the French inventor Francois Leorat in the 1980s, who was assigned the patent for the same by Regie Nationale des Usines Renault in 1989. But a similar technology was popularised by the American car company Chrysler decades ago—called PowerFlite, it was a two-speed automatic transmission and used in Chrysler passenger cars from 1954 to 1961.