It is known that vehicles which are in the stationary state are to be secured against an intentional rolling away. Usually two securing mechanisms are known for this. This involves, on the one hand, what is referred to as a gearshift lock, which is also referred to as a parking lock and is employed in manually shiftable vehicles by engaging the first gear speed. In automatic transmissions there is the possibility for this of engaging what is referred to as the parking position P for the transmission with the selector lever. An additional or alternative securing possibility is to use a parking brake. This parking brake is usually also referred to as the handbrake.
In particular, in the case of automatic transmissions for vehicles there is the disadvantage that the difference between the gearshift lock or parking lock, on the one hand, and the parking brake, on the other, is not always clear for the user of the vehicle. Therefore, depending on the user a different frequency of use may occur if only the parking brake, only the gearshift brake or the parking brake and the gearshift lock together are employed. This leads, on the one hand, to a relatively complex operator control situation, since at least two actions have to be carried out separately or together. On the other hand, this complexity possibly gives rise to confusion or to a higher degree of expenditure for the actuation by the user.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds