> There is a huge difference between a 90s Ford style lever position sensor and the BMW stuff. If the computer doesn't do the right gear for what you want you just move it until it does. The BMW will spit error messages at you.
You have missed the point. Yes, in that one particular failure mode if the calibration is off on the shift lever itself you can usually fiddle with it to at least end up in a gear. The point was that the transmission doesn't work unless the computer thinks everything's OK. It's not like a mechanical automatic where you can climb under the car and fiddle some levers to force it in to gear. The computer controls everything, just like in the BMW and just like basically every other automatic transmission from the late '80s/early '90s and beyond.
The fact that the BMW shift lever separates the part deciding what gear you've selected from the part actually controlling the gearbox and connects the two over CAN doesn't seem like a significant difference to me from a functionality or reliability standpoint.
The Ford is more or less a classic "game port" joystick where the BMW is the equivalent of a USB HID joystick.
You have missed the point. Yes, in that one particular failure mode if the calibration is off on the shift lever itself you can usually fiddle with it to at least end up in a gear. The point was that the transmission doesn't work unless the computer thinks everything's OK. It's not like a mechanical automatic where you can climb under the car and fiddle some levers to force it in to gear. The computer controls everything, just like in the BMW and just like basically every other automatic transmission from the late '80s/early '90s and beyond.
The fact that the BMW shift lever separates the part deciding what gear you've selected from the part actually controlling the gearbox and connects the two over CAN doesn't seem like a significant difference to me from a functionality or reliability standpoint.
The Ford is more or less a classic "game port" joystick where the BMW is the equivalent of a USB HID joystick.