Well...you are objectively better "in touch" with the machine when you have explicit control over, and are therefore force to pay attention to, the gear, coupli

Well...you are objectively better "in touch" with the machine when you have explicit control over, and are therefore force to pay attention to, the gear, coupling between engine and wheels (clutch), and traction. I don't think you can argue that modern cars aren't increasingly unloading a lot of driver responsibility onto the computer. I suppose it really is a question of how many different functions a driver has to pay attention to. In the limit you have a level 5 self driving car at which point you're totally removed from the experience and sure, by objective performance and safety metrics it's superior, but at that point there is no real pleasure derived from controlling the vehicle. > I just reject the romantic attitude that something is getting lost You really are losing aspects of control which some people enjoy managing manually. That enjoyment is the source of romanticization and those aspects are unquestionably disappearing. Granted, every person has their own happy medium on this spectrum of driving control, and personally I'd absolutely love an airplane style console where I have dozens of switches/dials to vary engine and suspension parameters, but I recognize that this is less than ideal according to safety constraints and market forces. As an analogy, the fact that I can almost blindly pick any combination of computer components and expect them to work when assembled means there is subset of techies who lament the good old days where you had to carefully choose compatible components, hunt for appropriate drivers, and occasionally come up with your own kludges. Yeah, it's objectively easier now, but it's perfectly valid to romanticize the thrill of doing it the old hard way. Risk gives spice to life.