[Tampa8]

My opinion is what early professional reviewers said that it sounds like you are describing. The transmission at low speed sometimes seems to search for the right gear or it jumps too quickly to the next one. Every so often I get that and their description fits. Only when I first take off and am very gentle with the gas pedal does it happen. It never happens with stop and go or any automated way of increasing speed. Nor when I am more firm from the start - or in Sport mode.
I think you see it as a much bigger issue than I do mostly because I do not think it is a hardware problem. This is not the first vehicle I owned new that does that, in our BMW at the time same issue, eventually there was an update to the firmware that fixed it.
If a hardware problem is indeed found that is a bigger issue for sure.


In no way am I sorry I bought the 2.5 Tucson so far.

 

[Tampa8]

I don't think that is what the OP is describing, and isn't what I am.
I almost have to try to get it to jerk, it happens when I am already moving and the transmission is moving up the chain. In the first few gears if I am very light on the pedal I can get what some could describe as a jerk - it feels to me that the system is searching for the right gear and/or is going too fast to get to the next gear. Which is exactly what I have seen some reviewers say.

This is one of them I have read that describes it. Notice just as I find, using Sport mode stops it from happening, furthering my thought it isn't a hardware problem but a firmware one.

"An aggressive fuel-economy calibration in the default Normal powertrain drive mode makes the transmission stingy with its downshifts, adding to the gawkiness." ........ "Sure, engaging Sport cures the transmission's programming ills ,,,,"

2022 Hyundai Tucson First Test: Awkward Beauty (motortrend.com)

 

[Tampa8]

As I have put more miles on my Tucson, that slight "jerking" or searching for a gear is gone. Not once on my recent trip. MPG continues to increase and the car just feels like it is running more in harmony now.