Manual transmissions may soon be a thing of the past. While enthusiasts adore them for the driving feel they provide, most motorists enjoy the ease and convenience of an automatic. Many performance cars perform better with automatics too, and electric cars also mean they are slowly becoming a thing of the past. However, Toyota has a trick up its sleeve.
The Japanese manufacturer has filed a new patent for a system that simulates engine stall that you would normally find in a manual transmission car. Yes, you read that right: Toyota has filed a patent to effectively create a fake manual transmission for an EV.
This isn’t something new either. The manufacturer has been working on a fake manual for three years, and this patent is another step towards installing it into future products. But that isn’t the only thing the system will do.
According to some reports, this new patent includes a system that will measure driver skills and activate safety systems if the car deems they are necessary. We do not know, as of the time of writing, how a Toyota vehicle will do this, but it is something many will be curious to see how it works in practice.
What We Know About the Fake Toyota Manual Transmission
The patent itself was recently spotted on the US Patent and Trademark Office website. The core part of the system is that it simulates an engine stall that you would find on any internal-combustion-powered manual car.
From what we have seen, if the driver operates the car in a way the system deems ‘unfavorable’, i.e., selecting the wrong gear at the wrong engine speed, the car will stop the motor. It will then apply the brakes and simulate a stall, even down to the jerky and harsh motion that you get in a regular car if a stall is occurring. It is a clever but highly unusual safety system.
On top of that, the system does have a fully simulated manual transmission. Included as part of the ‘control system,’ this system features a clutch pedal and a shifting device to try and create as close to a true manual experience as you can in an EV. Reports of this system first emerged in 2023, with it rumored that Toyota was testing an electric GR sports car with the manual transmission.
Why Is Toyota Creating This Fake Manual?
Driving an electric car might seem weird the first time you do so. There are no gears or clutch, and to move off you simply put your foot on the accelerator and away you go. There are no flappy paddles either. The most control you will have will be over which drive mode you are in, be it an eco mode, regular mode, or a sportier mode depending on the EV.
What that does mean, however, is some lack of engagement from the driver. Many of us no doubt like to feel connected and engaged with whatever car it is we are driving. Even an automatic transmission can give us that. Hyundai has already done this with the fake gearshifts in the Ioniq 5 N, which can even simulate hitting a rev limiter if the car is in manual mode. So, even though it might sound highly unusual, there is some logic to Toyota’s creation.