GM & Ford join to develop 9 and 10 speed auto transmissions

[POWERMAN]

Originally Posted by POWERFREAK

A 10 spd trans sounds pretty useless to me. More gears for the computer to hunt through....yippie.

+1; they dont call it slushbox for nothing...

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

The idea is that for most driving the engine can be kept within a narrower rpm band optimized for minimum fuel usage. I'm guessing that the tranny control logic could get a bit busy in hilly country with any of several ratios being reasonable to be in at just about any driving speed. Might even shift up or down on you with the cruise control set.


The alternative is a CVT, which brings a few limitations of its own to the table (think significant torque management interference when launching / starting up from a complete stop, and a sensation that it's "always slipping" even though nothing is actually slipping mechanically).

Norm

Undeniable, but when at times it takes a good 1-2 seconds to decide which gear to drop down to when you step on it (easy to catch it off guard when driving under varying traffic conditions) it does get annoying


I drove the CVT for a day and a half on a Nissan Altima, just couldnt get used to the lack of gear change..

Originally Posted by mclark10

My 2011 Equinox is the same way. Step on the gas after slowing to about 10 or so and it goes into 'drool mode' for a couple of seconds before it reacts. Sometimes I think someone on the line must've stuck an old Commodore64 programmed with a cassette data tape in for a tranny controller when it was built.

Tell me about it. At times I've narrowly missed a few inbound collisions, thanks to that delay..
I even tried using the manual mode, but that takes ~ a second to shift as well..

[Mr. iNCREDIBLE]

Originally Posted by AdamZ

So...it will sound like...

room

rooooom

rooooooooom

roooooooooooom

roooooooooooooooom

roooooooooooooooooooom

rooooooooooooooooooooooooom

rooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom

roooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom

rooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom

I think you need to invert that..

the high/long rpm will be from the lower gears and the upper gears will kick in AFM and you will have an exhaust sound similar to a baseball card in the spokes of your BMX bike.

personally I've driven semi-trucks with 9 forward gears, I suspect the ratios for a car won't be nearly as close, but I can see the computer dumping into 10th @ 30mph and dropping back to 2nd when you get on it cause a "WTF" moment for the computer..

and a tap shift with 10 gears.. ugh...

[tramtwo]

Originally Posted by fbodfather

Actually the Detroit three have worked together for several years on various technologies. (...Example: for many years, most manufacturers used 'Saginaw Steering Gear's' Power steering units - owned at the time by GM....)

As fuel economy standards march toward 56mpg by the early 20s, you'll see more and more speeds in automatic transmissions - and other sorts of technology to get us there.

While I cannot speak for other manufacturers, I do know that our ECMs 'learn' from your driving. The early 6 speed automatics did quite a bit of searching - and I would find myself doing the battery disconnect on some of my company cars because my driving is so varied. I'm finding that the newer transmissions have had substantially more algorithm work - and that they're quite responsive.

Is there anything else in the works to meet the 56mpg.... I mean beside engine, trans and weight reduction? Maybe reducing the about of friction of the tires on the ground.... or some super lube in the wheel bearings? I also envision (think cartoon) a "spring" that gets loaded when I apply the brakes that could launch me off the line.