Porsche may have come up with a novel way of keeping the stick shift around awhile longer.

The German sports car maker has filed a patent in its home country for a shift-by-wire system that could deliver the best of both worlds, reports CarBuzz. The document describes a gear selector that can be operate like both an automatic and manual gearbox.

It may be revered by automotive purists—and have experienced the slightest bit of a resurgence with Zoomers earlier this decade—but the manual transmission is on its last legs. In 2022, just 1.2 percent of new vehicles sold in the U.S. featured a third pedal. Despite this, Porsche remains committed to the technology and even sells two versions of its most iconic model, the 911, with the gearbox: the T and GT3. Last year, the company’s GT director Andreas Preuninger explained that the company still offered the latter with a manual because “we are in the entertainment business with this car.”

It would seem the company is even dedicating resources to extending the manual’s life by reimagining the technology. The recent patent filing, which was published earlier this month by the German Patent and Trademark Office but filed in August 2024, suggests that one way to do that would be to combine it with an automatic transmission.

The document is for a “gear selector device” that can move forward and backward, cycling between drive, neutral, and reverse, like any other automatic gearbox. But that’s not the only way it will be able to function. It will also have an H-pattern option that would allow the driver to move it left and right, in addition to forward and backward, thus allow them to shift through the gears as they would with a manual. If that wasn’t intriguing enough, the filing suggests both shifting methods could be used on the same drive, meaning they a driver could go manual while out on the open road but switch to automatic when they hit traffic.

When reached for comment on Wednesday, a representative for Porsche told Robb Report, “We can’t comment or participate in speculation on potential future product or technology features.”

As cool as this all may sound, it’s important to remember that, for now, the gearbox only exists as a description in a patent filing. That means that it could eventually feature in a future production vehicle, but just as likely will not. Still, considering similarities between the described technology and Koenigsegg’s Light Speed Transmission system gives us hope it will one day make it to market.