On another board I asked a question about electric transmissions and their innate capacity as a continuously variable transmission: is it possible to use something like an Ohmmeter to measure the electrical resistance between the Generator on the engine and the electric motors at the wheels; the electric resistance being a direct function of mechanical resistance ( the load being the mechanical resistance to the engine's twisting force known as torque); thus, one can have a non-parasitic way of measuring torque/load, and thus optimize the "gear ratio" instantly and continuously for ideal performance?

I don't quite follow the line of thought about torqe/load measuring but it is possible to calculate about any measurment of load/power etc by simply measuring the amps/volts/RPM etc of an electric motor or a generator. There are constantly veriable drive systems available commercially. The ones that I have worked with have a standard 3400 RPM AC electric motors driving a small electronically controled speed control unit much smaller than the motor itself. The output shafts rotating speed is controled by using magnetic coupling between the input shaft to the output shaft, the output shaft speed (or torque) can be adjusted at any time electronically. The output shaft has an electronic tachometer monitering it's speed, if the shaft speeds up due to the load being reduced then the tach circuitry will reduce the amount of magnetic coupling such that the shaft slows back down to the preset speed. The inverse happens if the load increases causing the shaft to slow down slightly then the magnetic coupling is increased to apply more power to the output shaft. Using microprocessors all this control can be applied to about any application.