Why would you put this in a manual transmission?

Do auto makers assume that we don't know what get to put the car in when we are driving?

I mean, if they were looking for mileage,, they should just light up on the dash *shift to whatever gear* but how can it physically make the car shift to 4th if you are doing everything you can to put it into 2nd...?

 

This feature has existed for a while; I think it was on the original ZR-1 Corvette. I think on that car it closed some sort of gate over 2nd gear, kind of like the 5th to reverse lockout on the 5 speed cars.

I have to wonder if Ford programmed the skip shift specifically so that it would affect the EPA mileage tests while mostly staying out of the way in everyday driving. I'm sure those EPA test drivers are like robots so Ford could program the system to work in a narrow range of conditions and still have it kick in during the EPA cycles.