I think I know why Jeep added "Auto Park" to our vehicles

[DrPlastic]

I now think I know why Jeep came up with this system. It was in part caused by the death of Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin. He played Chekhov in the latest ST films. The following was copied from Wikipedia.

He was found by friends after midnight on June 19, 2016, pinned between his Jeep Grand Cherokee and a brick pillar gate post outside his house in Studio City, Los Angeles, the victim of what was described as a "freak accident". As Yelchin got out of his car and went to check his locked gate and mail, the vehicle transmission had apparently not been put into Park and it rolled back down his driveway, which was on a steep incline, and trapped him against the pillar and a security fence. Yelchin was pronounced dead at the scene at the age of 27; the Los Angeles County Coroner's office identified the cause of death as "blunt traumatic asphyxia" and stated that there were "no obvious suspicious circumstances involved.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), the manufacturer of the Grand Cherokee, was aware of 2014 and 2015 models having a high rate of rollaway incidents due to a gearshift design that could make it difficult for the driver to determine whether the vehicle was in park or still in gear. FCA had already recalled all 2014–15 Grand Cherokees for this concern in April 2016, but the software patch to repair the vehicles did not reach dealers until the week of Yelchin's death. Following his death, FCA accelerated the recall campaign and took steps to get the affected Jeeps repaired more quickly than originally planned.

On August 1, 2016, Actor Anton Yelchin's parents announced through their attorney that they were planning to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler. The dealership from which Yelchin purchased the vehicle stated that he was responsible for his own death, because he had allegedly "misused" and "modified" the vehicle. The dealer also asked to be removed from the lawsuit. On March 22, 2018, it was announced that Yelchin's family and Fiat Chrysler had confidentially settled out of court.

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[NachoRuby]

Yep, that, among other instances, is why. It's well known. It also has to do with that stupid rotary shifter that's in Rams and GCs, though. Less likely with a normal column or floor shifter, or even whatever you want to call that thing Mercedes uses. Even bmw still uses a normal shifter. Not sure why FCA/Stellantis chose here to be different.

 

[dcmdon]

This kind of death has been happening for decades. My father's friend owned a business preparing and delivering vintage race cars to tracks all over the northeast for rich guy clients.

He was alone and unhitching a car trailer from his truck. The truck rolled over him.

Milton, NC-February 4th, 2004 The vintage racing community was rocked today by news of the untimely death of Charles T. Gibson last night in a tragic accident in Danville, Virginia. According to the Danville Register Bee, police were called to a local truck and trailer leasing depot around 7:30 PM Tuesday, where they found that Gibson had apparently unhooked a trailer in the back lot of the building and was outside of his tractor when it rolled over him. No one was operating the tractor at the time of the accident.

“Charlie”, as he was affectionately known, was best known as a partner with Dave Handy in their successful vintage and historic race preparation and tire supply business, Sascosports, now located in Alton, Virginia at Virginia International Raceway. Founded in 1977, in a shop that was part of Gibson’s house in Fairfield, Connecticut, Sascosports has become a leading supplier of goods and services, especially tires, for vintage and contemporary racers. Gibson had just recently returned from the Daytona 24-Hour sports car endurance race.

 

[Gvsukids]

I now think I know why Jeep came up with this system. It was in part caused by the death of Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin. He played Chekhov in the latest ST films. The following was copied from Wikipedia.

He was found by friends after midnight on June 19, 2016, pinned between his Jeep Grand Cherokee and a brick pillar gate post outside his house in Studio City, Los Angeles, the victim of what was described as a "freak accident". As Yelchin got out of his car and went to check his locked gate and mail, the vehicle transmission had apparently not been put into Park and it rolled back down his driveway, which was on a steep incline, and trapped him against the pillar and a security fence. Yelchin was pronounced dead at the scene at the age of 27; the Los Angeles County Coroner's office identified the cause of death as "blunt traumatic asphyxia" and stated that there were "no obvious suspicious circumstances involved.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), the manufacturer of the Grand Cherokee, was aware of 2014 and 2015 models having a high rate of rollaway incidents due to a gearshift design that could make it difficult for the driver to determine whether the vehicle was in park or still in gear. FCA had already recalled all 2014–15 Grand Cherokees for this concern in April 2016, but the software patch to repair the vehicles did not reach dealers until the week of Yelchin's death. Following his death, FCA accelerated the recall campaign and took steps to get the affected Jeeps repaired more quickly than originally planned.

On August 1, 2016, Actor Anton Yelchin's parents announced through their attorney that they were planning to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler. The dealership from which Yelchin purchased the vehicle stated that he was responsible for his own death, because he had allegedly "misused" and "modified" the vehicle. The dealer also asked to be removed from the lawsuit. On March 22, 2018, it was announced that Yelchin's family and Fiat Chrysler had confidentially settled out of court.

Yep. Been around for a while.
https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/autopark-feature.18380/

 

[NachoRuby]

This kind of death has been happening for decades. My father's friend owned a business preparing and delivering vintage race cars to tracks all over the northeast for rich guy clients.

He was alone and unhitching a car trailer from his truck. The truck rolled over him.

Milton, NC-February 4th, 2004 The vintage racing community was rocked today by news of the untimely death of Charles T. Gibson last night in a tragic accident in Danville, Virginia. According to the Danville Register Bee, police were called to a local truck and trailer leasing depot around 7:30 PM Tuesday, where they found that Gibson had apparently unhooked a trailer in the back lot of the building and was outside of his tractor when it rolled over him. No one was operating the tractor at the time of the accident.

“Charlie”, as he was affectionately known, was best known as a partner with Dave Handy in their successful vintage and historic race preparation and tire supply business, Sascosports, now located in Alton, Virginia at Virginia International Raceway. Founded in 1977, in a shop that was part of Gibson’s house in Fairfield, Connecticut, Sascosports has become a leading supplier of goods and services, especially tires, for vintage and contemporary racers. Gibson had just recently returned from the Daytona 24-Hour sports car endurance race.

Interestingly among jeeps, my 2018 compass with a manual transmission had an auto park. My 2021 manual gladiator does not, and neither does my 2016 Wrangler. The compass applied the brakes and beeped at you. The gladiator could not care less. I guess it is because of the manual parking brake, but seems like it could still apply the regular brakes, like the emergency crash avoidance features. I'm trying to recall but I think that's what my VW did (also manual). You could still override it in both though, once it activated. I didn't mind it on the compass. But it could be overriden, if you really "needed" to.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I now think I know why Jeep came up with this system. It was in part caused by the death of Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin. He played Chekhov in the latest ST films. The following was copied from Wikipedia.

He was found by friends after midnight on June 19, 2016, pinned between his Jeep Grand Cherokee and a brick pillar gate post outside his house in Studio City, Los Angeles, the victim of what was described as a "freak accident". As Yelchin got out of his car and went to check his locked gate and mail, the vehicle transmission had apparently not been put into Park and it rolled back down his driveway, which was on a steep incline, and trapped him against the pillar and a security fence. Yelchin was pronounced dead at the scene at the age of 27; the Los Angeles County Coroner's office identified the cause of death as "blunt traumatic asphyxia" and stated that there were "no obvious suspicious circumstances involved.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), the manufacturer of the Grand Cherokee, was aware of 2014 and 2015 models having a high rate of rollaway incidents due to a gearshift design that could make it difficult for the driver to determine whether the vehicle was in park or still in gear. FCA had already recalled all 2014–15 Grand Cherokees for this concern in April 2016, but the software patch to repair the vehicles did not reach dealers until the week of Yelchin's death. Following his death, FCA accelerated the recall campaign and took steps to get the affected Jeeps repaired more quickly than originally planned.

On August 1, 2016, Actor Anton Yelchin's parents announced through their attorney that they were planning to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler. The dealership from which Yelchin purchased the vehicle stated that he was responsible for his own death, because he had allegedly "misused" and "modified" the vehicle. The dealer also asked to be removed from the lawsuit. On March 22, 2018, it was announced that Yelchin's family and Fiat Chrysler had confidentially settled out of court.

Yes, that's well-known and old news, but that's not the only problem or case. It was just the most widely-known because it involved a famous person.

We owned Grand Cherokee with that crappy ratchet type shifter that popped back to center after shifting. It was really crazy not having a tactile feel of what gear you were in. There was no way to feel it. It reminded me of a ratchet shifter I had on an automatic equipped car - you had to go all the way to park or all the way to first to determine where you needed to move to get the gear you wanted.
Both my wife and I hated those shifters and we both constantly complained about it. More than once she THOUGHT it was in park because she actually moved the shifter - but it didn't take!

I know of a car that was totaled when it was at a body shop for minor repair. The shop guy backed the car up so he could move another car in, "put it in park", got out of the car and the car backed onto a highway and was hit and totaled. He didn't REALLY have it in park. Someone could have been killed.
An auto instructor in a HS had his foot run over by a car - supposedly not in gear.........
I'm sure there are dozens if no hundreds of cases like that.

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