A new patent application from the Japanese automaker, published just a few days ago, claims that there's technically no limit to how many "gears" a simulated manual transmission can have. Images published alongside the technical document show as many as 14 gears. The automaker also explains how this actually works.
The patent goes into great detail about the ins and outs of such a system. In short, the driver will be able to choose exactly how many gears he or she wants.
Toyota Manual Transmission Patent
"The number of the virtual gear stage may be six stages or more, or less than six stages," the document notes. "A driver is allowed to select a desired pattern in line with his/her preference."
The whole "select a pattern" part is a bit misleading, though. To be clear, the automaker is not describing some kind of electromechanical system to effectively create as many physical shift gates as the user desires. Instead, there would be a fixed number of actual gates; probably six, but Toyota uses four as an example. A gear is selected just like a regular manual, but the lever can return to neutral after it's been used. Then, as the driver moves through the gears, the virtual pattern shifts to the next set of "ratios". So if there's a pattern of six gears and sixth is selected, a display will change the available ratios, inviting the driver to go up to seventh and all the gears after that, or down to fifth and the existing set of gears.
It looks a little confusing right now. But there's a reason why automakers have never gone beyond seven gears in regular passenger cars. A 14-speed manual transmission isn't practical when paired with a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine. But when your manual transmission is just being simulated, Toyota seems to think there's no harm in giving people a choice.
Source: Motor1
