Now, apparently, there have been more than a few responses to the magazine article regarding the viability of the product shown in the Gizmag video of Steve Durbin, presenting his D-Drive. (And, I should include, our own commenter CKTVT, who pointed out the limitations of the system quite early on -- good on you, CKTVT.)

First and foremost: The machine presented is not, in and of itself, an infinitely variable transmission. Rather, it has the chance to be a component of such a system, which would mean the main friction actors -- the absence of which we touted highly during the initial hoopla -- would remain, but simply as a factor of the system.

And -- as our very astute reader CKTVT pointed out -- under real scenarios the mechanism as it now stands would have far too much pressure on what is now considered the "output" shaft, and the idea doesn't work for the hard-demands sector.

But it does, in fact, work -- whether in low-torque situations or regular driving, Steve Durbin's D-Drive makes us think about the future of the transmission in a different way -- and that's a good thing.