System for simulating manual transmission operation in a vehicle

A method for controlling the acceleration and speed of a vehicle so as to produce user sensations simulating the experience of a vehicle having a user-selectable one of a plurality of manually-controlled transmissions, the method comprising the following steps:

• providing a system including a controller having an electronic memory and a gear selector movable between a plurality of unique positions;
• loading one of a plurality of different transmission profiles into the electronic memory of the controller, each transmission profile including
• a plurality of simulated gear ratios ranging from a lowest simulated gear ratio to a highest simulated gear ratio;
• a gear selector table correlating each of the plurality of simulated gear ratios with a unique position of the gear selector;
• each of the simulated gear ratios including a maximum speed value and a maximum acceleration value;
• wherein the lowest simulated gear ratio has a lowest maximum speed value, and the corresponding maximum speed value for each simulated gear ratio increases for successively higher simulated gear ratios;
• wherein the lowest simulated gear ratio has a highest maximum acceleration value, and the corresponding maximum acceleration value for each simulated gear ratio decreases for successively higher simulated gear ratios;
• providing a gear selector position signal to the controller that is indicative of a current position of the gear selector selected from the unique positions;
• using the gear selector position signal received by the controller and the gear selector table to determine a current simulated gear ratio corresponding to the current position of the gear selector;
• using the current simulated gear ratio to determine a current maximum speed value and a current maximum acceleration value corresponding to the current simulated gear ratio;
• controlling, by the controller, the torque output between a motor and a drive wheel of the vehicle to limit the acceleration of the vehicle to the current maximum acceleration value;
• and
• controlling, by the controller, the torque output between the motor and the drive wheel of the vehicle to limit the speed of the vehicle to the current maximum speed value.