Studebaker was one of two independent American auto manufacturers to invest in development and tooling for automatic transmissions, the other being Packard with its Ultramatic product.
Automatic Drive, which combined a three-speed planetary gearset and a lock-up torque converter, debuted in early 1950 as a $201 option on all Studebaker models.
By 1955, Studebaker was forced to abandon the Automatic Drive because of high production costs, replacing it with a less-expensive Borg Warner unit based on Ford's Ford-O-Matic, which Studebaker called Flight-O-Matic.
Borg-Warner continued to build Studebaker's Automatic Drive and market the unit overseas.
It was used on British marques including Jaguar, Daimler, Humber and Ford Zephyr/Zodiac.