I have that shifter on my Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's been recalled but I actually love it. Maybe I'm an outlier but it's not that dissimilar from electronic shifters in BMWs and Mercedes. My girlfriend's Mercedes acts like a turn signal on the steering column and it's 10x more confusing to operate. I hate it. The primary safety difference is that it auto-parks itself when the door is opened. Chrysler's recall adds the same self-parking functionality.

I don't agree that shifters should work the way they've always worked. They warrant a redesign because long throwing shifters eat up a bunch of precious center console space. An area where stuff is often over-packed by the driver or co-pilot; phones, cups, coins, paperwork, keys, wallet. Most of this demands short-term, easy access storage.

If better safety mechanisms were considered in the Chrysler, I doubt we'd be talking about this shifter as a failure. Nobody is criticizing Mercedes' exceptionally poor design – unless you read car enthusiast forums – because they added better safety processes.