this isn't supposed to be the hard part about driving

[cellio]

Every time I drive Dani's car (a rare occurrence) I am reminded that driving an automatic transmission requires specific skills that I apparently haven't learned. I assume there's a trick to accelerating -- that you can regulate the gas flow (via the gas pedal) to kick the gears in when you want them to -- but I'm afraid I will be forever reaching for the clutch pedal and shifter while driving. :-) This has happened with multiple cars, so it's probably me and not the car.

(We're going to his company's winter party after work, I'd rather he drive home in the dark with the predicted sleet, and he's not cleared for my manual transmission. So since he takes the bus to work anyway, I just took his car today.)

Comments

because it all comes down to vi vs. emacs

[brokengoose.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem, though it goes away if I stick with the automatic for a few days.

The right thing to do with a manual is exactly the wrong thing to do with an automatic. When you feel the upshift starting, you need to increase pressure on the gas pedal rather than backing off. Same thing when you slow down. Don't bump the gas on the downshift.

We push those details off to the automatic portion of our brains. Really, when was the last time you consciously thought "I need to shift from second gear to third gear now, so I'll press the clutch in while easing off on the gas, push the shifter over and up, and then slowly release the clutch while pushing down on the gas"?

I suspect the problem is that the rest of the driving experience is so similar that it confuses our reflexes. Think of text editors. I (and probably most people) can freely jump from emacs to vi to word. An emacs-like or vi-like editor, though, will confuse the hell out of me because it's just similar enough to make finger memory kick in.

Re: because it all comes down to vi vs. emacs

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

When you feel the upshift starting, you need to increase pressure on the gas pedal rather than backing off.

Odd; that's my S.O.P for both my wagon (manual) and minivan (automatic). The only things I really do differently are [a] when starting the upshift, the automatic requires a more careful touch on the gas to get the shifting sequence started, and [b] the minivan's transmission needs to be babied in general. (Which is why I'm in the minivan more often; montuos is hell on iffy trannies.)

Re: because it all comes down to vi vs. emacs

[cellio]

I suspect the problem is that the rest of the driving experience is so similar that it confuses our reflexes.

That makes sense. I spent a long time being reluctant to drive automatics that had the shifter where the manual shifter would be (I learned with one on the dash); I worried that I'd reach for the (manual) shifter, find something, and do something unfortunate. Eventually I decided that this wasn't going to happen if my foot didn't feel a clutch pedal first, and indeed it never has happened. But, yeah, similar interfaces for different operations are problematic.