system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How come we can't just add X amount of gears to a transmission and have one of the most efficient cars ever?
gpt
We kinda did. Early cars had 3 speeds, and now we have 10. We also have CVTs with infinite ratios. At the end of the day it won't help much. Adding more gears would make it possible to go faster while maintaining low engine rpm but at some point air will make it too difficult to reach those speeds with such low engine output. You could design those gears to be used at lower speeds to keep the engine in its efficiency zone but then your gearbox would need to constantly shift gears. Even 10 is too much really and it's often annoying to drive. And even with infinite ratios CVTs are only slightly more efficient so there's not much to be gained anyway.