Indicator for a shift by wire vehicle transmission

A method of controlling a vehicle drive system including an engine, a manually operable clutch, a transmission that has a plurality of selectively engageable gears and that is coupled to the engine through the clutch, and an automated shift module that changes the gears within the transmission, comprising the steps of:

• (A) generating a signal to indicate an operator-desired shift of the transmission;
• (B) automatically initiating the desired shift including automatically causing a break torque condition without requiring manual clutch operation;
• (C) determining whether a transmission condition necessary to complete the desired shift has been automatically established by the system within a preselected time period;
• and
• (D) signaling the operator of the vehicle to manually operate the clutch to cause the break torque condition and thereby complete the desired shift when the necessary transmission condition has not been automatically established within the preselected time period.