What Happens When You Engage Reverse While Driving?

Today, he's doing an experiment that sounds a lot more dangerous. In a car with a manual, accidently engaging reverse while driving could send you spinning towards a tree under the right conditions (screwed up gearbox, wet conditions).

But it's not a manual; it's an automatic Ford Fusion sedan with a PowerShift gearbox and a conventional gate. You're not fiddling around with gearbox all day, so accidently knocking it into reverse is unlikely to happen. Still, most of us look at that big R and imagine it's covered in porcupine spikes.

So, what happens when you select reverse at 70 miles per hour? The answer is an anticlimactic "nothing." As with the previous experiments, Ford has installed idiot-proofing measures so that you won't crash, and you won't destroy the gearbox.

The car doesn't clutch in, yet is probably waiting for you to reach a complete stop and begin parking maneuvers because the reversing camera is engaged.

This video has nearly two million views already, which means people really want to know. But let us add out two cents here and say that not every gearbox has a failsafe like this one. Accidents related to the automatic shifter have been known to kill people and cause significant recalls occasionally.

So just because nothing happens in this particular car doesn't mean yours is safe. For example, my gearbox will grind the gears if I rush from drive to reverse without entirely stopping the vehicle. I did it once and learned my lesson, so never in a million years will I do this 70 mph experiment. But that's precisely what makes it interesting to watch.