BMW's design proposal acknowledges that automated transmissions have a clear advantage in terms of efficiency due to their wider range of gear ratios. However, BMW is looking to bring the manual transmission up to par by adding 7, 8 or even 9 gears. In doing so, safety problems have emergeg such as incorrect gear selection which causes the engine to over-rev or stall. BMW's solution is to use a gear shift mechanism that only allows shifts that are within an allowed range to be executed. Technically speaking, this would be implemented by having the shifter gates surrounded by a magnetorheologic or electrorheologic fluid. Monitored by various sensors, a magnetic field or electric voltage applied to the fluid would change its viscosity, physically preventing or allowing certain gears to be engaged.
"The technology can be used on a traditional manual transmission with up to 8 gears. The driver rows his own gears as usual (and uses a clutch pedal), but the computerized shifting module described above allows the driver to shift into proper gears while blocking dangerous gears, thus avoiding mechanical over-revs (the "money shift") for a manual transmission with so many gears," according to the design proposal.

BMW also envisions this technology for a second application called "Shift by Wire." Combining the best of both worlds, Shift by Wire completely omits the clutch pedal. Think of it as an SMG sequential gear box but with the traditionally gated manual gear shift lever possibly up to 9 speeds.