Patent ID: 7327241

Claim:
An indicator device for a vehicle with an automatic transmission, which is designed to be selectable between an automatic shift mode and a manual shift mode and to be selectable between a plurality of gear ranges, comprising: a shift-mode detector for detecting whether said manual shift mode or said auto shift mode is selected by a driver; a gear-range detector for detecting each of the gear ranges selected by the driver in an operation for selecting said automatic shift mode; a gear-position detector for detecting a gear position selected by the driver when said manual shift mode is in a selected state; and an indicator for indicating each of said gear ranges selected in the operation for selecting said automatic shift mode, and said gear position selected when said manual shift mode is in the selected state, said indicator including a first gear-range indicator section which has a plurality of linearly-arranged alphabet and/or symbol elements adapted to be selectively lighted up so as to indicate either one of a non-drive gear range and a reverse gear range, or a combination of a plurality of linearly-arranged alphabet and/or symbol characters representing the non-drive gear range and the reverse gear range and a plurality of linearly-arranged light-emitting elements each disposed in side-by-side relation to a corresponding one of said alphabet and/or symbol characters, and a second gear-range indicator section adapted to indicate an alphabet character and/or a symbol character representing a forward gear range by using a plurality of segments; and an indication controller for controlling said indicator in such a manner that, under the condition where said shift-mode detector detects that said auto shift mode is in a selected state, said first gear-range indicator section is operable, when the selection of either one of said non-drive gear range and said reverse gear range is detected by said gear-range detector, to light up one of said alphabet or symbol elements or one of said light-emitting elements which is corresponds to said selected gear range, and said second gear-range indicator section is operable, when the selection of said forward gear range is detected by said gear-range detector, to indicate the alphabet character and/or the symbol character representing said forward gear range, and, under the condition where said shift-mode detector detects that said manual shift mode is in the selected state, said second gear-range indicator section is operable to indicate the gear position detected by said gear-position detector.