Zeroshift Automated Manual Transmission could be an automotive killer app

[JohnWxy]

http://www.gizmag.com/go/6807/

One of the most remarkable claims we’ve heard in a long time and it appears to be true – UK-based technology company Zeroshift has developed the killer app for automobiles – an ingeniously simple way of replacing synchromesh in a manual gearbox with a reliable, cheap-to-manufacture mechanism that allows completely seamless gearchanges. Whatsmore, the Zeroshift Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) changes gear faster than any other gearbox (gearchange time is, as the name suggests, zero) and provides improved acceleration, economy and emissions in any vehicle to which it is applied, be front wheel drive cars, rear wheel drive cars, four wheel drive, motorcycles or trucks.

For road vehicles, extra refinement is available by combining gear shift actuation with a clutch, and the resultant system is claimed to be more efficient than Audi/VW’s DSG and a cost effective alternative to the traditional torque converter based automatic transmission.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



The company claims this transmission will improve fuel economy 115 over teh standard 4 or 5 spd automatic transmission.

[Tommy_J]

1. New?

This appears to be a straight forward adaptation of constant mesh technology for automotive use. Constant mesh has been the standard configuration for motorcycles and race cars for decades. I suspect the real innovation is the ability to match engine speed via the engine's computer. Its a great idea but they need to ground their claims in reality and not take credit for existing concepts.

[JohnWxy]

2. thanks for that info. I didn't know that. All I care about is does it work and is it cost effective

[Tommy_J]

6. Yes, it should work well and be cost effective.

With a deeper look I realized there is something really new here. Constant mesh shifts can be fast and buttery smooth but these transmissions tend to have a lot of backlash that makes on/off throttle transition abrupt. Their system addresses this. Neat idea.

[PSPS]

3. Yeah, didn't VW do something like this in the 60's called the "automatic stick shift?"

[madrchsod]

5. yes they did...one name was the "saxomatic"

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. My Beetle had one (a "semi-automatic" or "autostick")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autostick#Volkswagen_Autostick
It was dramatically different from this:

1. It was a standard 3 speed transaxle, with synchros.
2. It had a standard clutch, which was automatically disengaged, and reengaged based on a micro-switch in the base of the shifter.
3. It had a "torque converter" between the flywheel and the clutch and the engine.

It was an innovative system, but not terribly efficient (especially because of the torque converter) and, the least reliable part of that car.

One of my favorite features, was if the front seat passenger spread his or her legs, and hit the shifter with her or his left knee, the clutch would instantly disengage! Naturally, they would immediately close their legs, and the clutch would quickly reengage, (but not before the engine had a chance to rev up!) This was particularly amusing at highway speeds.

[madokie]

10. Did you know that the tranny in that beetle

was a standard vw 4 speed with the first gear blocked so as you couldn't engage it? Well it was. Remove the little plate that blocked the shifter from going into the first gear and you had the makings of one hell of a good backroads vw baja bug that would crawl over anything that it didn't get hung up on. It will go places where the average 4 wheelers couldn't imagine going.

[OKIsItJustMe]

11. No, I didn't

My dad and I dropped the engine out of that bug 3 or 4 times, but we never dropped the transaxle.

[madrchsod]

4. i used to do that with my two cycle saabs

a bit tricky to do without nipping the gears but i got the hang of it.

[NNadir]

7. "Could?" "Killer" Ap?

"Renewables will save us" car CULTists can't construct a sentance in an OP without the word "could."

For the last 7 years, I have seen thousands of these "could" posts, usually greenwashing cars and the enormous destruction they cause.

In truth though, such "could" talk stretching back decade upon decade, hundreds of million tons of dangerous fossil fuel waste dumped after hundreds of million tons of dangerous fossil fuel waste dumped.

As for the "killer" claim, I'm sure that any irony connected with it is oblivious and unintentional.

I'm sure that this plays out like one of those "we didn't know" documentaries one sees about other holocausts.

I have always thought, by the way, when watching one of those documentaries that the only reason one didn't know was that one deliberately avoided seeing what was obvious.

[madokie]

9. I have always thought, by the way,

That you're batshit crazy. What the fuck did anything you wrote have to do with the OP?