ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,638,078, issued on May 26, was assigned to SUBARU Corp. (Tokyo).
"Vehicle" was invented by Koichiro Terai (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vehicle includes a range input device and a shift by wire control device. The range input device accepts an operation of a gear shift lever by a driver. The shift by wire control device switches a transmission range including first and second ranges in response to the operation. The range input device has first and second range areas corresponding to the first and second ranges, respectively. When operated, the gear shift lever passes through the second range area to reach the first range area. ...