Electrical sensing system for a vehicle shifter

A motor vehicle, comprising:

• a powertrain including an engine and an automatic transmission;
• a shifting system controlling shifting of the automatic transmission, said shifting system comprising:
• a manually operated shift lever movable along a first shift path having at least one gear position wherein said transmission is shifted automatically without movement of said shift lever, and a second shift path wherein said transmission is shifted in response to a change of position of said gear lever;
• a controller programmed and configured to control shifting the transmission when moving the shift lever in either of the first and second shift paths;
• a sensor operably connected with said shift lever when said shift lever is located along said second shift path, said sensor operably connected with said controller and providing a signal to said controller corresponding to at least one of the position and velocity of said shift lever when the shift lever is located along said second shift path, said controller controlling a transmission shifting sequence based, at least in part, upon a time derivative of position of said shift lever in the second shift path.

A shifting system for controlling shifting of an automatic transmission of a motor vehicle, comprising:

• a base;
• a manually operated shift lever movably mounted to said base and movable along a first shift path having park, reverse, neutral, and drive gear positions, and a second shift path generally parallel to said first shift path, and a transverse shift path extending between said first and second shift paths, said second shift path having an upshift gear position at a first end thereof, and a downshift gear position at a second end thereof;
• a controller programmed and configured to control shifting of the shifting of the transmission when moving the shift lever in said second shift path without mechanical linkage;
• a potentiometer operably connected with said shift lever when said shift lever is in said second shift path and providing a variable signal to said controller corresponding to the position of said shift lever, said controller adapted to control a shift speed of the transmission based upon the velocity of the shift lever in said second shift path.