Ficosa North America Corporation

Javier Alvarez Rubio

Alejandro Mendoza-Vega

Jeffrey Lee Jones

Vijay Thota

A shift-by-wire (SBW) column shifter for a vehicle includes a shift lever configured to be moved to shift gears. A shaft enables the shift lever to rotate the shaft about an axis. A lever detent is coupled to the shaft, enabling the shaft to rotate the lever detent about the axis. A rotatable magnet rotates as the lever detent rotates. A magnetic sensor senses the angular position of the lever detent due to the changes in magnetic characteristics of the magnet as it rotates. A processor can command an operating gear change based on the signal output from the magnet sensor.

Shift-by-wire (SBW) column shifter

A shift-by-wire (SBW) column shifter for a vehicle includes a shift lever configured to be moved to shift gears. A shaft enables the shift lever to rotate the shaft about an axis. A lever detent is coupled to the shaft, enabling the shaft to rotate the lever detent about the axis. A slider magnet is constrained to move along a path, such as a linear path. The slider magnet has a groove that is engaged by a projection of the lever detent. Rotation of the lever detent about the axis is converted into movement of the slider magnet along the path via the engagement of the projection and the groove. A plurality of sensors are configured to output signals indicating a position of the slider magnet along the path to indicate a requested change in operating gear of the vehicle.

A gear selector assembly includes a shift gate including a plurality of gates, a gear selector movable between the plurality of gates and including a pawl, and a gate blocker positioned to restrictively interact with the pawl of the gear selector to selectively restrict movement of the gear selector through a first gate to a second gate. The gate blocker includes a biasing member configured to bias the gate blocker towards a nominal position. The gate blocker is configured to not restrictively interact with the pawl to allow the gear selector to move from the first gate to the second gate when the gate blocker is in the nominal position. Each gate of the shift gate is associated with a mode of operation of a vehicle.

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Rochester Hills, MI, United States of America

Javier Alvarez Rubio