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The end of the manual transmission is near?

popularmechanics.com

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Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#361

Post by jjav »

masklinn wrote: post #274
eric4smith wrote: post #113

Manual transmissions are dead. I grew up learning to drive a manual transmission car. Awesome. I loved the feeling of driving and shifting gears up the hilly, mountainous, twisty horrible roads in Jamaica. Exhilarating! But cars got better. I got older, and now automatic transmissions are so much more efficient than manual transmissions * for ordinary people *. We're not talking about people who love driving here. We…

> I got older, and now automatic transmissions are so much more efficient than manual transmissions * for ordinary people *. It’s not just ordinary people. The opposite, if anything. F1 and rally cars haven’t been manual for decades. I don’t think any modern super is manual. Though with the ev-ification the point is moot as save for a few rare exceptions they’re single-gear.

> F1 and rally cars haven’t been manual for decades.

In racing, but particularly in F1, you can't leave a single millisecond on the table because the competitors won't. So F1 gearboxes shift in milliseconds which is obviously impossible for a human to do with a clutch pedal. And that is all F1 teams optimize for, speed.

When driving purely for fun (as most street sports cars are used) there is no stopwatch, so it hardly matters if the shift happens in 10 milliseconds or a 1000.

What matters is how much fun it is and that is where a good shifter and a clutch pedal with a nice feel shine.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#362

Post by fragmede »

mongol wrote: post #333
Salgat wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ended up going back to automatic after 3 years of manual. Automatic is more fuel efficient, more convenient, and honestly I can't enjoy urban traffic either way, at least with automatic I don't have to think about it. If I truly want to enjoy a manual I'll do it on the race track.

> Automatic is more fuel efficient I thought it was the opposite. Has that changed?

Yes. Technology advanced and CVTs and 10-speed dual-clutch automatic transmissions are now more (by 1-2 mpg) more efficient than manual transmissions.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#364

Post by bobthepanda »

AlexandrB wrote: post #299
Retric wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You asked why, and the answer is cost vs benefit. Car styling alone doesn’t justify the risk to pedestrians, large truck utility can. Yes, this tradeoff kills people, but so do all sorts of things like not physically preventing cars from driving 80+MPH.

This is a non answer. Australia has a vehicle style commonly referred to as a "ute"[1]. I think it stand for "utility". Which is basically a car with a truck bed in the back. This provides many of the advantages of a pickup without the increased danger to pedestrians. Why are car companies not marketing/selling these to the average consumer instead of the monster RAMs and F150s? I suspect the reason has everything to…

The reason is because ANCAP and Euro NCAP test for pedestrian safety and US NCAP does not. They have been sitting on their hands since 2015. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-20-419

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#365

Post by Auracle »

Judgmentality wrote: post #105
voldacar wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government has made it all but illegal to make a car that isn't ugly

As someone who hates how ugly modern cars have become, I can also acknowledge the extraordinary leap in safety they've achieved since then. Many of the rules are designed around safety. Although a counterpoint to this is the giant A pillars limit visibility so much as to be dangerous themselves.

I almost got t-bones a few weeks ago due to my pillars. It was a rural intersection that’s at an angle and I looked both ways. I didn’t notice the road was at an angle where an approaching car would be hidden. I pulled out, and if I had been .2 seconds faster I might’ve been dead. A van zoomed by going 60 and I braked all of a few inches from getting hit.

Stupid of me, of course. But it’s easy to miss a bad combination of factors.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#366

Post by InCityDreams »

shrimp_emoji wrote: post #310
NonNefarious wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Or the Europeans are too ignorant and lazy to update to new stuff like AC (and auto transmission). ;p

Eu here: have ac and man tx. So does everyone i know. A big difference may be that we turn on the ac only when really necessary, and a manual tx isn't that hard...kids at 16 do it, and have to pass their tests doing it in that, if you take your test in an automatic you are not allowed to drive a manual without being considered a learner again.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#367

Post by WillPostForFood »

ciconia wrote: post #351
eric4smith wrote: post #113

Manual transmissions are dead. I grew up learning to drive a manual transmission car. Awesome. I loved the feeling of driving and shifting gears up the hilly, mountainous, twisty horrible roads in Jamaica. Exhilarating! But cars got better. I got older, and now automatic transmissions are so much more efficient than manual transmissions * for ordinary people *. We're not talking about people who love driving here. We…

> now automatic transmissions are so much more efficient than manual transmissions * for ordinary people *. Efficient in what way? I find it highly unlikely an automatic would have better fuel economy than a manual.

They weren't for about 100 years, but automatics are now mostly better than manuals in terms of performance and economy. Unfortunately, some the the things that make them "better" like 8 gears makes the driving feel worse, with constant shifting. The other big gain is in improved torque conversion.

https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/how-automa...

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#368

Post by unethical_ban »

kbenson wrote: post #255
recursivedoubts wrote: post #7

I reiterate my compromise proposal: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32397975 I will give up my manual transmission, if you will bring back pull-knobs, twist knobs and other tactile switches for the main controls of my vehicle, with the appropriate tactile feedback at set points so I can set them without looking. After thinking on it, I am going to raise my demands, however: you also need to produce cars that are…

> reasonably sized as in the 50s and 60s. Fire all your designers, go back to whatever your models were in 1965 What alternate dimension are you from? My older brother had a 60's Ford Fairlane when I was growing up. My first car was a 67 mustang. I had a friend with a 68 Camaro. I knew someone else that had multiple Thunderbirds from that era. These were not small cars. The Mustang and Camaro were the size of a full…

Volume, maybe, but there is no way in any dimension that a Fairlane weighs as much as a new F150.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#369

Post by rswail »

By 2030, I expect the number of EV produced to exceed the number of ICE vehicles. EV doesn't need a gearbox, which makes the discussion about manual vs automatic transmission moot.

In terms of vehicle external design, modern vehicles are designed for pedestrian and passenger safety, and that emphasis pushes towards a consensus design of the jelly bean look. EVs with their "frunk" will further evolve that design as it means that there isn't a honking great lump of steel in the front of the car.

As for the driver UI/UX, touch screens for controls that the driver needs to operate while driving are a definite negative. I expect that there will be studies by the various standards bodies regarding this that will require movement back to haptic feedback requirements in the design rules.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#370

Post by dang »

hinkley wrote: post #154
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then the answer is “no” by Betteridge’s law :) “ Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.”

"Can Any Headline Ending In a Question Mark Be Answered By the Word 'No'?"

Very nice!
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