Esoteric? I’ve only encountered a handful of automatic cars in my life here in the UK. Having a licence that only covers automatic has historically been rather limiting here. The only person I know that has that has dyspraxia.
For me the appeal of a manual transmission is in engine braking. When driving an ICE car I barely need the brakes because the majority of my speed management is through engine braking. Fortunately my electric car has the option for pseudo engine braking - and it charges the battery too!
When I’ve driven an automatic I could only manually set the gears for first and second. I’m sure that’s not universal as nothing is, but I can only speak to my own experience.
I would usually use fourth when decelerating up to a junction and then switch directly to second as I get close, as an example.
Yeah but it’s not really feasible to use it at every corner and stop like you can a manual car. Engine braking in an auto is mostly just for doing long descents without riding the brakes too much
True but again, most modern trains don’t have the internal combustion engine directly delivering power to the wheels, they’re hybrids where the engine is essentially just a generator powering an electric drivetrain. You can’t have regen without a place to put that regenerated electricity, engine braking is distinct as that energy goes toward compressing air in the cylinders and generating heat that just goes out the exhaust as waste.
Esoteric? I’ve only encountered a handful of automatic cars in my life here in the UK. Having a licence that only covers automatic has historically been rather limiting here. The only person I know that has that has dyspraxia.
For me the appeal of a manual transmission is in engine braking. When driving an ICE car I barely need the brakes because the majority of my speed management is through engine braking. Fortunately my electric car has the option for pseudo engine braking - and it charges the battery too!
Automatic cars also have engine braking.
When I’ve driven an automatic I could only manually set the gears for first and second. I’m sure that’s not universal as nothing is, but I can only speak to my own experience.
I would usually use fourth when decelerating up to a junction and then switch directly to second as I get close, as an example.
Yeah but it’s not really feasible to use it at every corner and stop like you can a manual car. Engine braking in an auto is mostly just for doing long descents without riding the brakes too much
Some cars have ‘hard’ regenerative braking but yea, it’s rare (thinking about Tesla)
Regen is just an electric car thing though, no? And EVs (with very few exceptions) don’t have a transmission at all?
Regen has been on trains for a long time, fwiw.
True but again, most modern trains don’t have the internal combustion engine directly delivering power to the wheels, they’re hybrids where the engine is essentially just a generator powering an electric drivetrain. You can’t have regen without a place to put that regenerated electricity, engine braking is distinct as that energy goes toward compressing air in the cylinders and generating heat that just goes out the exhaust as waste.
Uhhh that sounds right
To be fair I know close to nothing about cars and mechanics
Haha no worries