Device and method for detecting the shift lever position in a motor vehicle

Bit coding of the individual switching position is so chosen that the distribution of all possible transitions between the switching positions of a safety critical group is done. The transitions between forward and reverse switching positions belong to the safety critical group. The transitions between a parking and the neutral switching positions belong to less sensitive group. The hamming distance between the bit samples for all transitions of the sensitive group corresponds to each of the prescribed increased hamming distance, which is larger than two. The hamming distance between the bit samples for all transitions of the less sensitive group is less than the prescribed increased hamming distance. The hamming distance is such that collectively the bit number N necessary for the resulting coding is smaller than the bit number with a coding, with which the hamming distance for all possible transitions would correspond to the increased hamming distance. An independent claim is also included for the method.