Electronic gear display for an electronically-controlled automatic transmission system

An electronically-controlled automatic transmission system comprising:

• an automatic transmission;
• a shift lever mechanism;
• a transmission controller interconnecting said automatic transmission and said shift lever mechanism;
• a body controller;
• a communication bus interconnecting said transmission controller and said body controller;
• a first set of lights connected to said body controller to indicate that said shift lever mechanism is in a Park, Reverse, Neutral and Overdrive automatic mode of operation of said automatic transmission;
• and
• a second set of lights connected to said body controller to indicate that said shift lever mechanism is in a first, second, third and fourth gear manual mode of operation of said automatic transmission, said body controller turning said first set of lights and said second set of lights ON and OFF in accordance with a gear position indicator message from said transmission controller.