ABSTRACT This study was conducted to develop and validate a multidimensional measure of shift quality as perceived by drivers during kick-down shift events for automatic transmission vehicles. As part of the first study, a survey was conducted among common drivers to identify primary factors used to describe subjective gear-shifting qualities. A factor analysis on the survey data revealed four semantic subdimensions. These subdimensions include responsiveness, smoothness, unperceivable, and strength. Based on the four descriptive terms, a measure with semantic scales on each subdimension was developed and used in an experiment as the second study. Twelve participants drove and evaluated five vehicles with different gear shifting patterns. Participants were asked to make kick-down events with two different driving intentions (mild vs. sporty) across three different speeds on actual roadway (local streets and highway). After each event, participants were asked to complete the rating of the four descriptive terms as well as a comprehensive rating on the gear-shifting event. Along with this subjective evaluation, changes of mechanical properties during the event also were recorded. This included shift time and delay, acceleration profile, and jerk. Consequently, a series of statistical analysis revealed the relationship between each subdimension on subjective quality and their associated mechanical properties. Models of comprehensive shift quality, based on the ratings of the subdimensions for driving intentions and speeds, were also developed. The study provided a unique framework to assess subjective driving quality related to mechanical control variables in amultidimensional way, which is applicable to improve the quality of a vehicle. 1. INTRODUCTION In automatic transmission vehicles, the gear-shifting event allows the vehicle operate over a wide range of speeds and is a key component for speed control in the vehicle. When changing gears, there is often a jolt in the vehicle's movement due to a transmission setting by the manufacturer to reduce response time excessively for the gear change. Conversely, drivers might perceive an unexpected delay in acceleration when the transmission control is programed to provide drivers with a more smooth feeling. Due to this, it is required to find optimal configurations of gear shifting patterns to satisfy drivers across various conditions. However, the effort to satisfy drivers for shift quality also implies the importance of valid measurement technique to evaluate drivers' subjective perception of quality of the gear-shifting event, in forms of quantitative metric. Historically, automobile companies have used trained drivers to assess the shift quality by rating it on a scale of 1-10 after driving the vehicles [ 1]. Another approach may include the examination of variation of forward and backward acceleration data (G data) captured using acceleration sensors attached in a vehicle. Experts often use this approach on vehicle evaluation as an in-direct assessment method [ 2], [3]. There have also been studies to develop a useful measurement method [ 4]. Zhang, et al., conducted a study to evaluate shift quality based on six different factors, these being shift time, acceleration, fuel economy, exhaust Multidimensional Measure of Perceived Shift Quality Metric for Automatic Transmission Applying Kansei Engineering Methods2013-01-0336 Published 04/08/2013 Byeong wook Jeon Hyundai Motor Company Sang-Hwan Kim and Heather Harrelson University of Michigan - Dearborn Copyright © 2013 SAE International doi:10.4271/2013-01-0336Downloaded from SAE International by University of Liverpool, Saturday, September 08, 2018emission, jerk, and sound. The evaluation was applied to three different types of automobiles (average, premium luxury, and racing). They developed an artificial network to predict shift quality and validated it using the ratings of a professional driver [ 5]. The existing measure