[MetroMPG]

Nobody should be accidentally shifting into reverse in an automatic car!

The shifter is designed to prevent it in every car I've driven: you don't need to press the button to move between drive and neutral. You just push the selector forward.

But you do need to press it to get to reverse from N (or out of P). So... you shouldn't be pressing the button when the car's moving.

Even the old column mounted shifters were designed to permit going to neutral safely: by pushing the lever away from you and upward (rather than pulling - the normal column motion), the neutral detent will stop it.

One partial exception I know of: VW used to require you to press the button to get out of N back into drive; not sure if they've changed that. And some other vehicles may not have a detent at D when coming out of N; they may slip past it to D3 or below.

You need to know how your car works before trying this stuff on the road!