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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?

#781

Post by quacked »

driverdan wrote: post #770
quacked wrote: post #142

I would pay $25,000 cash for a new manual transmission '00s-style mid-sized pickup with hand-crank windows and knobs for the temperature and radio. Last time I drove a car from after 2018 it started automatically keeping pace with the car in front of me on the highway, and you couldn't manually close the trunk but instead had to push a button and wait for it to close. I hate modern cars.

Why would you want hand crank windows? Electric windows are a reliable and proven technology.

I've had electric windows stop working on me, but I've never had a hand crank window stop working.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#782

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #525
boppo1 wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahaha I was thinking of passengers. Hence "how do they get eaten?" But even so, were old car shapes really worse than modern car shapes? Seems like you get hit, you're gonna have a bad time no matter what.

Even for people in the car, some older car designs put the drivers legs under the engine block. In a head on collision at speed, the legs were the crumple zone (meanwhile the steering column was being pushed through your torso). edit: also recently people noticed that high 'trucks' would simply miss the crumple zones in the car they were crashing into > Another problem is "impact incompatibility" where the "hard poin…

> edit: also recently people noticed that high 'trucks' would simply miss the crumple zones in the car they were crashing into

Yup. But because pickup truck drivers still want to sit 50 feet above traffic, the trucks end up with these ridiculously tall front ends and complain about how ridiculous they look. When you tell them it's so you don't run over other cars and kill the occupants in a crash, they literally tell you that they don't care.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#783

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

Doxin wrote: post #371
Judgmentality wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The giant A pillars are a nuisance for sure, but you're supposed to bob and weave your head with any size A-pillar. Even with the smaller old A-pillars you can hide plenty of things behind it. If you're ever in the Netherlands you should book a driving lesson for shits and giggles. Not claiming we're all amazing drivers, but we sure do have hard driving exams when compared to the USA.

In the USA, if you have a pulse, you'll pass the driving exam.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#784

Post by hedora »

ansible wrote: post #500
hedora wrote: post #135

Honestly, I don't understand why manufacturers are spending any money at all designing new ICE power trains. I can sort of see the argument for hybrids, but charging networks will make them obsolete very soon. On the other hand, I also expect politicians to pull in the 2035 mandatory phase outs of gas vehicles.

> I can sort of see the argument for hybrids, but charging networks will make them obsolete very soon. Eh, I don't know about that. The current-gen Prius can easily get over 600 miles on a tank of gas if you aren't a lead foot. And a refill takes 5 minutes. For longer trips, that still makes quite a difference.

I suppose some people can cope with sustained 10 hour drives broken up with five minute bio breaks, but I cannot.

Also, unlike with gasoiline, you don't need to supervise an EV while it charges. Stopping for 30 minutes (bathroom breaks included in that time) every 5 hours doesn't seem too onerous to me.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#785

Post by lisper »

taylodl wrote: post #759
lisper wrote: post #742

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you live? Because I lived in LA, and I found that after an hour or more of constant clutching, day after day after day, it got old.

By the time I got to that kind of traffic my left foot and right hand were already on automatic. Doesn't feel like a chore because half the time I'm not even aware of what they're doing - they just do it.

It's not the cognitive load, it's the physical load of pumping the clutch constantly for an hour or more.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#786

Post by neallindsay »

femto wrote: post #569

To 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?

As you guessed, EVs primarily use regeneration to brake. Most newer EV models give you a "blended" brake pedal where it will use regen exclusively if you brake softly but it will also apply the traditional wheel brakes if you brake hard.

Once you get used to the idea of regen it's weird to think that traditional combustion cars just throw away all that energy as heat in the brakes and/or engine.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#787

Post by driverdan »

quacked wrote: post #781
driverdan wrote: post #770

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you want hand crank windows? Electric windows are a reliable and proven technology.

I've had electric windows stop working on me, but I've never had a hand crank window stop working.

Hand crank windows have common problems too, such as cables breaking or the window coming off the track which can also happen for electric.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#788

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

sokoloff wrote: post #556
zaarn wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've given up with manual, as a technology, since I've used an EV that didn't have any switching transmission. Just fixed gear ratio. The feeling is better than manual. You always have full power available. There is no RPM regime where an EV won't be able to apply maximum torque. Manual can't beat that feeling. Though I will also say that a modern automatic doesn't need 500 meters. It works almost as well as manual.…

> There is no RPM regime where an EV won't be able to apply maximum torque. Sure there is! Electrics have maximum torque at zero RPM. As RPM increases, their torque drops off. Some cars will have a torque limit that provides for constant torque (less than the motor would be capable of), but as RPM continued to increase, eventually the torque falls off. > You always have full power available. This is also incorrect, b…

> > You always have full power available.

> This is also incorrect, but less so than the max torque claim

Eh, I think you're being a bit pedantic here.

The point was that in an EV, you always have the maximum torque for a given speed available. Whereas in an ICE, you'll have to downshift, which in some automatic cars can take a second or two. You can suddenly floor the gas and go nowhere, whereas an EV takes off immediately. Even a 600 horsepower hypercar will be a little sluggish if you floor it at 55 mph in the top gear.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#789

Post by kube-system »

chinathrow wrote: post #713
kube-system wrote: post #684

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s pretty difficult to require a manufacturer to design a car today based on how someone will use it in the future.

Huh? To drive around?

A manufacturer does not know, at manufacture time, whether you will put hay bales or grandmas furniture in your truck bed.

Re: The end of the manual transmission is near?

#790

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

woodruffw wrote: post #582
tomohawk wrote: post #568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. The technocrats thought they'd be clever, and they basically outlawed reasonably sized cars for very small marginal efficiency gains. People bought light truck instead. People don't want to drive around in dinky death traps. The CAFE standards for cars are too restrictive. The fleet averages look great, but the percentage of cars as vehicles on the road is low. Cars such as station wagons don't exist any mor…

I don't understand this comment. SUVs are classified as passenger vehicles. They're also getting larger (and more dangerous for pedestrians), but to nowhere near the same degree that pickup trucks have. The danger posed by pickup trucks is chiefly a function of the absence of regulation: the US has decided that you can role-play as a farmer and get treated as one for safety purposes, without actually demonstrating a…

Can you offer an example of any consumer product where you have to "demonstrate a need" before you're allowed to purchase it?
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