SIMPLIFIED CONTROL OF THE MOTOR CAR has occupied the minds of designers ever since the earliest days of the industry. In the many attempts to make driving a car easier for the man‐in‐the‐street, steam was one of the forms of propulsion used until the early ‘thirties’ but when the internal combustion engine finally won the day, efforts were concentrated on finding something better than the friction clutch and manually operated gearbox for use in conjunction with this type of engine. Before World War II several fully automatic transmissions for passenger cars had already been developed, especially in the U.S.A., and it was during this war that these transmissions found application in fighting vehicles. With the return of peace, motor manufacturers turned to fully automatic transmissions in a big way. It is hardly surprising, considering the generally advanced state of mechanisation in that country, that in the volume production of this type of transmission the U.S. again took the lead. Also, the large output of the domestic motor industry offered the best chances for a favourable return on the considerable capital investments inherent to volume production of complex transmission designs.