Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's unlikely it took you five minutes to get the hang of clutch control and shifting gears. OK, it is possible you managed to avoid kangerooing but only for a small range of circumstances. From rest (with a gear selected and clutch depressed), you have to unlatch the handbrake, whilst at the same time gradually engage the clutch and deploy power via the throttle pedal. You have to ensure you don't go backwards on a…
In Switzerland, most instructor cars are Diesels, since they have higher torque and are very hard to stall. Then you go home and drive your parent's petrol engine car and you stall it all the time
The end of the manual transmission is near?
571–580 of 875 posts
Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?
#572To me a manual is all about engine braking. You just have to use the brake pedal less. I haven't driven an electric vehicle before, but I imagine they could deliver a similar experience if the regeneration was suitably programmed? Can an EV driver comment on whether they offer a similar engine braking experience to a manual?
To answer your question, Tesla by default starts breaking a little bit when you take your foot off the accelerator pedal, as if you were driving in a slightly lower gear. This behavior is configurable in settings.
Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?
#573To me a manual is all about engine braking. You just have to use the brake pedal less. I haven't driven an electric vehicle before, but I imagine they could deliver a similar experience if the regeneration was suitably programmed? Can an EV driver comment on whether they offer a similar engine braking experience to a manual?
Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?
#574Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?
#575Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can I add a request? A car that doesn't phone home. That is, one that the government is utterly unable to remotely turn off, monitor, or impose distance quotas. One that cannot be hacked through a poorly secured server in a car maker's server farm or government server with the username/pass admin/admin.
Forget about the government, I’m more afraid of insurance companies or the manufacturers themselves imposing such limits. Fortunately shielding against one shields against both.
Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?
#576Earlier quoted context omitted.
They serve as a signalling mechanism all right; they signal that their owner has no taste, and doesn't care.
Just like every generation’s thinks the next generations music sucks, this reaction is intended. Fashion is about signaling not whatever you happen to agree with.
Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?
#577I once drove my brand-new Mazda B3000 4WD to another city, on Christmas Eve. The dealer had helpfully washed my new truck before I drove it away. Some water had seeped and my starter was frozen solid. Fortunately a couple of hearty passers-by pushed it so I could kick-start it. If it had been an automatic, I would have spent Christmas hundreds of kilometers from home & family.
Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?
#578I 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…
Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?
#579To me a manual is all about engine braking. You just have to use the brake pedal less. I haven't driven an electric vehicle before, but I imagine they could deliver a similar experience if the regeneration was suitably programmed? Can an EV driver comment on whether they offer a similar engine braking experience to a manual?
My BMW has a neat adaptive driving mode: because the motors don’t use permanent magnets, lifting off would normally result in coasting. When adaptive driving is on, the car uses its radar to figure out how much regeneration (and if necessary friction) braking to apply so you stop just short of the car in front of you, all without applying the brake. The same system is also used to dampen acceleration when there are cars in front of you. It sounds like madness, and is very strange the first few times you use it, but ends up making driving more pleasant.
Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?
#580Earlier quoted context omitted.
I drove a manual for about 20 years and I still really enjoy them, but there is one thing that made me happily leave them behind: stop-and-go traffic. Not having to clutch constantly when driving in the city is a big enough win that I'm willing to give up the fun of a manual for it. But I do sometimes miss having a stick on a windy mountain road.
And don't forget leaving from a stop uphill.