Patent ID: 8706365

Claim:
A method for determination of numbers of gear steps N for a gearbox in a motor vehicle, wherein the vehicle comprises an engine connected to drive the gearbox, and the numbers of gear steps N are the number of downshifts or the number of upshifts which the gearbox effects at an upshift point or a downshift point, and wherein a downshift point represents a first engine speed at which the gearbox effects a downshift, and an upshift point represents a second engine speed at which the gearbox effects an upshift, the method comprising the step of: determining the numbers of gear steps N on the basis of a predicted time period T which the engine takes to change from a first engine speed ω 1 at a first point in time to a second engine speed ω 2 at a second point in time, wherein the time period T is determined as a function of a predicted mean acceleration a of the vehicle during the time period T.