Why do you need to switch between Reverse and Drive when driving? Why not add another pedal that makes the car go backwards instead?

Question

Why do you need to switch between Reverse and Drive when driving? Why not add another pedal that makes the car go backwards instead?

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Answer 1

Because there’s already a very simple system for implementing reverse versus drive under the hood.

The gear settings on a car already change some number of engine rotations into some number of tire rotations. Gears are in place so we can adjust the ratio between engine rotations and tire rotations through different settings to keep the engine rotations within a certain range where it won’t stall or break.

One thing with gears is that every gear in a sequence changes the order of rotation. If you had a series of (2d) gears and turned the first one clockwise, the second would go counterclockwise, the 3rd would go clockwise again, the 4th counterclockwise, and so on. We can take advantage of this since we’re already using gears in the car.

If we add one extra physical gear into the sequence for reverse, the end result is that the tires turn the other way when we go into reverse.