Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How America lost its love for the stick shift

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

671–680 of 729 posts

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#671

Post by emodendroket »

Krasnol wrote: post #670
emodendroket wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no separate American license for standard shift. You can take your license exam in an automatic, then the next day go out and legally drive a manual car on the road.

But there is here in Germany. I only learned about it because almost all of our US colleagues have it. Making them a pain in the ass on so many occasions.

Oh, if they've actually been licensed in Germany then it's a different story, I suppose. Very few countries will issue an unrestricted license if you test in an auto but the US will. When I first bought a six-speed Mazda I had only practiced driving manual for a weekend.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#672

Post by mirimir »

joeblau wrote: post #604
mirimir wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, I've never driven an EV. Although I've mellowed a lot, what I love about manual transmissions is the ability to instantly ramp torque. It's especially useful for extreme turns. Do EVs have so much torque that it's not necessary?

EV's torque curve is different than a manual. Torque on an EV is instant so it available faster than a manual, but then tapers down (Because the cars are programmed that way). If you had performance manual transmission car, the torque curve keeps going up. That's what when people drag race a Tesla, the Tesla wins in a quarter mile, but then all of these other high speed automobiles end up catching and passing the Tes…

I get that torque for EVs is ~independent of rpm. But still, there's just one set of gearing, right? So the effective torque at the wheels is also ~independent of rpm.

And yes, torque at the wheels is likely much greater for Teslas than for my Civic VTEC in third gear. But I wonder about second gear. I mean, the car has wide low-profile tires, and I can spin them on dry pavement in second, from a standing start. And it takes some skill to avoid doing that when starting in first.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#673

Post by anticensor »

mcjiggerlog wrote: post #542
tyingq wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all cars have hand operated emergency brakes.

I've never in my life seen a manual car that doesn't have a hand brake.

He means hand brakes with direct mechanical action. Electronic emergency brakes do not count.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#674

Post by Krasnol »

emodendroket wrote: post #671
Krasnol wrote: post #670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there is here in Germany. I only learned about it because almost all of our US colleagues have it. Making them a pain in the ass on so many occasions.

Oh, if they've actually been licensed in Germany then it's a different story, I suppose. Very few countries will issue an unrestricted license if you test in an auto but the US will. When I first bought a six-speed Mazda I had only practiced driving manual for a weekend.

US Americans have to take the test at some point. I think after a year (or something around that time) their US driving license becomes invalid.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#675

Post by jimmaswell »

larkeith wrote: post #623
jimmaswell wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'll try it in real life someday, but I've tried manual in some sim games (Richard Burns Rally and Assetto Corsa, racing wheel/pedals + oculus setup) and it wasn't more fun, it was just a distracting chore. And that's not even having to use a clutch pedal, which would make it even worse.

As another poster noted, racing simulators will never be able to do anything close to replicating the experience of driving a manual. In an actual car, there's a constant physical feedback throughout the entire vehicle, from the vibration of the pedal to the sound of the engine to the acceleration from releasing the clutch, none of which can be effectively simulated. It's easy to tell you're much more directly connec…

I don't see any reason any of those couldn't be simulated. The sound of the engine and acceleration properties are already well-simulated and I'm pretty sure more expensive setups can do the vibration. All this plus a VR headset and the only thing missing is the g-forces.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#676

Post by dredmorbius »

angry_octet wrote: post #625
angry_octet wrote: post #621

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can whoever flagged the original comment please STOP and THINK. Nothing wrong with the post. OMG. @icantdrive55 you are 100% right.

On investigation icantdrive55, someone is systematically killing your posts. All you can do it create a new account.

"Dead" is generally admin activity, "killed" is user flags. Seems to date to 2016, though I don't see an admin comment.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#677

Post by mcjiggerlog »

anticensor wrote: post #673
mcjiggerlog wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never in my life seen a manual car that doesn't have a hand brake.

He means hand brakes with direct mechanical action . Electronic emergency brakes do not count.

Yeah I know - I'm saying that in Europe every single manual car has a proper mechanical hand brake.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#678

Post by cafard »

My wife and I would prefer a manual transmission. However, we want to have a station wagon, and when we last went shopping for a car, the only station wagons with a manual transmission were Audi and VW. So we have an Accord (rebadged Honda) with an automatic transmission.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#679

Post by InitialLastName »

mulmen wrote: post #367
InitialLastName wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think GP's point is that people who have fun driving drive more frequently, which is inherently unsafe.

It’s unclear to me that more driving equates to more danger. Driving is currently very unsafe but that is a product of the drivers. If drivers were safer driving itself would also be safer.

Every extra person driving a car adds to the total risk to everyone.

I'm of the understanding that "safer" driving is a function with an asymptote well above zero, i.e. there's only so much that a person's skill as a safe driver will improve the net safety of the system.

I'd like to add that I'm not just talking about the safety of the extra person driving; there's also the safety of the other road users, whether in cars, on motorcycles, on bicycles, or on foot. An extra driver on the road raises the net risk for everyone.

Additionally, in my experience the intersection of "drives for fun" and "drives safely" is so close to zero that it's not worth considering.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#680

Post by skrebbel »

kenhwang wrote: post #541
skrebbel wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a car noob, but how is physically fitting automation into a device difficult? Isn't it a tiny chip on a board?

An automatic transmission and manual transmission actually have very different physical designs. Manual transmissions typically consist mainly of a locking mechanism that is physically moved with the shifter for gear selection and a clutch plate to couple the transmission to the engine. Typically you have one physical gear for every logical gear, and you're using the shifter to physically connect to the gear you want…

Wow thanks! I really simply believed automatic gear was a computer pressing buttons.
Post reply on HN