US Patent Issued to ZF Friedrichshafen on July 15 for "Acceleration with virtual gear ratios from low speeds" (German Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,359,720, issued on July 15, was assigned to ZF Friedrichshafen AG (Friedrichshafen, Germany).

"Acceleration with virtual gear ratios from low speeds" was invented by Simon Geiger (Oberteuringen, Germany) and Matthias Duller (Friedrichshafen, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The invention relates to a method for accelerating a vehicle with a continuously variable transmission (1050) where a gear ratio of the transmission is at first larger than a gear ratio of a virtual fixed gear. While the vehicle is accelerating, the gear ratio of the transmission is increased to the gear ratio of the virtual fixed gear. The transmission is then ...