As I look at my neighbor (his house is in the background of my avatar) trying to back his Razor in the garage with his Rebel, I am glad my old girls have column shifts. FCA, at the time of introduction, stated it was for more console room, but you can't tell me they don't save $$$ with a little dial and less wiring.
NHTSA just closed without recall the Seven Year "Yelchin" investigation on the dial shifters; still, a campaign had the vehicle automatically go into park if the door was open, so no crawling with the vehicle in drive making sure you are still on the pavement with freshly washed truck.
https://www.autoblog.com/2024/01/30...ge-ram-rotary-gear-shifters-without-a-recall/
The Yelchin death was caused in a Jeep with a console shifter, it was spring loaded and always "returned to center". You could never tell by the physical position what gear you were in.
The Ram rotary dial has always thrown itself into park the second you open the door, at least in my truck. They may have had different behaviour in the past. I've set my truck to auto set the parking brake as well once it goes into park. I don't think it's going anywhere when I hop out, and it makes short work of connecting a trailer as the truck doesn't move a single bit when you get under the ball and hop out.
