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Because a manual transmission makes you engage more with the car. You must control it more actively, thus teaching drivers to focus on and observe the car and r

Because a manual transmission makes you engage more with the car. You must control it more actively, thus teaching drivers to focus on and observe the car and road rather than waiting for directives from sensors like blind-spot detection lights. An automatic mentally allows the driver to feel and operate more like a passenger than a pilot. Manual trans prevents this. It's not about some pretentious "feel" like porsche-bros espouse. It's about engagement and forming good habits so drivers are more self aware and self sufficient on the road.

SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
> An automatic mentally allows the driver to feel and operate more like a passenger than a pilot. Manual trans prevents this. I don't understand, they are still steering the craft, as well as adjusting it's speed. You haven't removed any of the important requirements for driving - being able to steer the vehicle and modify it's velocity. The ability to use a clutch and change gears simply compounds the difficulty of that exercise, it doesn't cause the driver to necessarily engage with the car in a way affects the drivers skill, it may have a higher skill floor, but it doesn't really make for a higher performance ceiling.
nradov 8y ago
Your could make the same arguments for bringing back manual chokes. I think it's better to reduce the driver's workload so they can keep both hands on the wheel and devote more attention to what's happening outside.
- wcarron 8y ago
  > so they can keep both hands on the wheel and devote more attention to what's happening outside. That was my point though. When driving a manual, your hands are either A) on the wheel, or B) one on wheel, other shifting gears. You can't really do much else. Maybe drink coffee if you're sitting in the same gear over distance, but in suburban traffic with stop lights and signs and turns, you can't afford to do much more than drive, shift, and execute maneuvers like lane changes, turns, etc. There's far less opportunity to do things like text, read, rubberneck, etc. I.E. Devote more attention to what's happening outside.
  - Dylan16807 8y ago
    At the times that an automatic most easily lets your attention wander, driving at a consistent speed, a manual does no more to keep you engaged. It keeps you more focused on the car at lights and turns, but that might be a bad thing. I want to be focused on the cross traffic, not my engine.
  - nradov 8y ago
    If your hypothesis is correct then we would expect to see auto insurers offering lower rates for manual transmission vehicles due to a lower risk of crashes. Do you have any evidence for that?
    - brianpgordon 8y ago
      To be fair, that would be hopelessly skewed by the propensity of illegal racers (and other people who think it's fun to drive powerful cars really fast on public roads) to prefer manuals.
      - SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
        I'd argue that those people are bad drivers.
        brianpgordon 8y ago
        That's the point.
vvillena 8y ago
As a driver of both types of cars, this is completely false, in my experience. Having a clutch pedal doesn't make drivers more aware or capable. On the contrary, it's a small cognitive load that can be freed, then put somewhere else. A bad driver isn't thwarted by a stick shift. They'll do the bare minimum to keep the car on the road. These drivers are notoriously bad at selecting gears, so they usually solve that issue buying diesel-powered cars with a more forgiving power curve.
thomasz 8y ago
It's just one additional thing that requires brain cycles which would be better spent on situational awareness.

SketchySeaBeast 8y ago

> An automatic mentally allows the driver to feel and operate more like a passenger than a pilot. Manual trans prevents this. I don't understand, they are still steering the craft, as well as adjusting it's speed. You haven't removed any of the important requirements for driving - being able to steer the vehicle and modify it's velocity. The ability to use a clutch and change gears simply compounds the difficulty of that exercise, it doesn't cause the driver to necessarily engage with the car in a way affects the drivers skill, it may have a higher skill floor, but it doesn't really make for a higher performance ceiling.

nradov 8y ago

Your could make the same arguments for bringing back manual chokes. I think it's better to reduce the driver's workload so they can keep both hands on the wheel and devote more attention to what's happening outside.

wcarron 8y ago
> so they can keep both hands on the wheel and devote more attention to what's happening outside. That was my point though. When driving a manual, your hands are either A) on the wheel, or B) one on wheel, other shifting gears. You can't really do much else. Maybe drink coffee if you're sitting in the same gear over distance, but in suburban traffic with stop lights and signs and turns, you can't afford to do much more than drive, shift, and execute maneuvers like lane changes, turns, etc. There's far less opportunity to do things like text, read, rubberneck, etc. I.E. Devote more attention to what's happening outside.
- Dylan16807 8y ago
  At the times that an automatic most easily lets your attention wander, driving at a consistent speed, a manual does no more to keep you engaged. It keeps you more focused on the car at lights and turns, but that might be a bad thing. I want to be focused on the cross traffic, not my engine.
- nradov 8y ago
  If your hypothesis is correct then we would expect to see auto insurers offering lower rates for manual transmission vehicles due to a lower risk of crashes. Do you have any evidence for that?
  - brianpgordon 8y ago
    To be fair, that would be hopelessly skewed by the propensity of illegal racers (and other people who think it's fun to drive powerful cars really fast on public roads) to prefer manuals.
    - SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
      I'd argue that those people are bad drivers.
      - brianpgordon 8y ago
        That's the point.

vvillena 8y ago

As a driver of both types of cars, this is completely false, in my experience. Having a clutch pedal doesn't make drivers more aware or capable. On the contrary, it's a small cognitive load that can be freed, then put somewhere else. A bad driver isn't thwarted by a stick shift. They'll do the bare minimum to keep the car on the road. These drivers are notoriously bad at selecting gears, so they usually solve that issue buying diesel-powered cars with a more forgiving power curve.

thomasz 8y ago

It's just one additional thing that requires brain cycles which would be better spent on situational awareness.