“My guess is that they wanted it to be more like a Tesla.”
There are plenty of things you don’t want to happen while driving 40 miles an hour. Accidentally putting your car in park has to rank pretty high on the list. But that’s exactly what happened to one Ford driver in Alabama, and the explanation has less to do with careless driving than with a design change she didn’t see coming.
The details of the high-speed mishap were shared by Huntsville car salesman Bradley Wilson (@bradley.wilson606), whose wife upgraded to a newer Ford Mustang Mach-E and discovered one substantial change in the instrument configuration while on the road. A built-in fail-safe put the truck in neutral and prevented a major incident, but Ford’s engineering decision is still a head scratcher for Wilson.
“My guess is that they wanted it to be more like a Tesla. I’ve noticed that the Tesla has the shifter on the column like that. I even drove a Mercedes yesterday that had a similar, a similar design,” Wilson told Motor1. “In the past, I’ve tried to go up the chain with Ford and ask questions, and it’s just like, what’s the point? It was a waste of my energy.”
For several years, the Mustang Mach-E came with a rotary gear selector on the center console, leaving the windshield-wiper controls on the steering column. Wilson’s wife had become accustomed to that arrangement after two years of driving a 2023 model, only to learn, while behind the wheel, that Ford had reversed the setup for 2025.
In the new setup, Ford moved the shifter onto the right side of the steering column and combined the wiper and turn-signal controls on a single stalk to the left.
“Along comes 2025 and some brilliant engineer gets the bright idea that they’re going to move the shifter to the column,” Wilson said in his TikTok video, questioning why Ford would abandon a familiar layout.
Wilson, who sells vehicles for the Long-Lewis Automotive Group family of dealerships in Huntsville, said since posting his video he’s heard from other drivers who have encountered similar confusion with the controls.
Ford had a practical reason for changing the Mach-E’s interior. Moving the gear selector off the center console opened up additional storage space, addressing customer feedback about the previous design.
When announcing the 2025 model, Ford said the column-mounted shifter would replace the center-console dial across the Mach-E lineup. The change was part of a broader round of updates that also included ventilated front seats on premium models and new driver-assistance capabilities.
The new arrangement also follows an approach used by other automakers, including Mercedes-Benz and Tesla, although Ford has not attributed its decision to either competitor.
For drivers who prefer a less cluttered center console, the change offers an obvious benefit. But it also requires returning Mach-E owners to unlearn years of familiar movements.
Not everyone who watched Wilson’s video sympathized with his complaint. Some argued that drivers bear responsibility for learning the controls of any vehicle they operate, regardless of where manufacturers put them.
One commenter said he’d driven a 2024 Hyundai Sonata equipped with a column-mounted electronic shifter for more than a year without ever confusing it with the windshield wipers.
“Problem isn’t the engineering. It’s the driver. People don’t pay attention anymore,” they wrote.
Wilson pushed back, emphasizing that his complaint concerned the sudden change between otherwise familiar vehicles. “You’re missing the point the windshield wiper was on the column for several years and they changed it abruptly,” he replied. “It’s called muscle memory. It’s hard to avoid sometimes.”
Another commenter argued that adapting to unfamiliar controls is simply part of driving, noting that vehicle designs have changed repeatedly over the years.
Understandably, Ford’s 2025 Mustang Mach-E owner’s manual instructs drivers to select park only when the vehicle is stationary. The column-mounted selector uses a park button, while moving the stalk up or down selects other gears.
The manual also warns that a vehicle in neutral is free to roll. Wilson said the vehicle shifted into neutral when his wife inadvertently selected park at 40 mph. His wife escaped the incident without injury, but the scare hasn’t changed his opinion of Ford’s decision to rearrange the controls.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if they would just leave well enough alone and stop trying to improve things just for the sake of improving things?” Wilson asked rhetorically in his video. It appears his video has since been deleted.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motor1.com?
– The Motor1.com Team