• Zachariah@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Never had that problem, but I do hate it that automatics start going when you lift the break rather than when you press the gas (and engage the clutch).

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      An automatic car has no clutch; automatic transmissions aren’t just manual transmissions that do the work for you. It has a thing called a torque converter which is kind of a hydraulic pump and hydraulic motor in one unit which allows the engine to deliver torque and yet still slip.

    • kn33@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I’ve driven a manual once - in a parking lot. Most of my driving has been in an automatic. I agree with this. I should have to press the “go” pedal to go, not just release the “stop” pedal. Thankfully, I now have an EV where I can choose to have it stop when I release the “go” pedal and not go again until I press the “go” pedal.

    • edric@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Most newer cars that have electronic parking brakes have an auto brake-hold feature that you can turn on. It keeps the car still when you depress the brake pedal a little deeper. Then the car won’t move when you release the brake and will only do when you step on the gas (or brake) again. It’s very useful at stop lights and drive thrus so you don’t have to keep your foot on the brakes all the time.

    • Rinox@feddit.it
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      7 months ago

      I have an automatic, drove a manual for years and a few times a year I still need to drive a manual, but I’ve never really done this, aside from maybe a couple times the very first time I got my automatic.

      What usually happens is I stall the manual once or twice forgetting to press the clutch while decelerating. Not that often anyways.

      But maybe it’s cause I learned on a manual, not an automatic

      • NaoPb@eviltoast.org
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        7 months ago

        Changing back to a manual I had to remind myself to press the clutch while putting the car in gear with the engine running. And not just having the brake pedal pressed. But you get used to that quite fast with the awful grinding noise.

    • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      I find this terrifying. I drove a manual for 20 years and often switched to an automatic and never did it, and can’t imagine how it would even happen. The pedals aren’t that close.

      • kemsat@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I’m not understanding either. When I drove manual, I used the left foot exclusively for the clutch, and in an automatic, I don’t use the left foot at all.

        • Sylvartas@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Basically, monkey brain expects the left foot to meet with a pedal and will absolutely settle for the brake pedal if not reasoned with. I’ve done it a few times myself.

    • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      … no, but you left foot clutch, and the brake pedal in an automatic is the width of both pedals in a manual. Forget, floor the “clutch” to shift, and that’s that. Just hope you forget when you first start going rather than when getting up to speed on a highway.

      • schnokobaer@feddit.de
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        7 months ago

        and the brake pedal in an automatic is the width of both pedals in a manual

        Yeah… no.

        The clutch would be to the left of both pedals in an automatic. Your foot rests in the empty space left of the brake pedal, usually there’s some kind of footrest roughly where the clutch would be. If anything you’d slam on that rest. Lifting your left foot off that rest (where the clutch you intend to slam would be) to hit the center pedal (which is where the brake is in any car) makes zero sense as a potential mixup. Not to mention it would feel extremely unnatural to operate a pedal so far right with your left foot if you tried.

        • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Okay. Well, it’s happened to me… twice. I don’t know what to tell you. It’s a real thing that happens.

        • froh42@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          The footrest is still there in a manual car. The brake pedal is smaller, the clutch in between.

          When you brake you hit the clutch with the left foot and brake with the right one on the brake pedal. Unintentionally smashing the wider brake pedal can happen if you switch from a smaller car to one with a very wide brake pedal. (Mercedes have quite wide brake pedals, for example)

          It also happened a few times to me over my. life until I got used to put my left foot very close to the seat when driving automatic, so I don’t subconsciously use it. (Just “away” from where I’d have it in a manual car)

          It typically happens if you need to do emergency braking anyways and just all the reflexes kick in. In normal situations it never happened to me.

        • bitwaba@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          The brake pedal in automatics is twice as wide as a brake pedal in manual cars.

          No one is intentionally hitting the brake pedal. They’re moving their foot to push in a clutch pedal that doesn’t exist, and accidentally hitting the left hand side of the wide ass brake pedal.

        • waz@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          If you are used to driving a manual, you don’t rest your foot on the foot rest area, you keep it just about to push the clutch. Also, saying the brake pedal is the full width of two pedals is wrong, but it is certainly wider. I have gone for the clutch in an automatic once and just barely caught the edge of the brake pedal. The results were very confusing, and without exaggerating it took me 5-10 seconds to figure out what I had done. It was while driving my mom’s car with her in it and she looked at me with the most “what the fuck are you doing?” look she has ever made.

          This was all over twenty years ago but yes, it is definitely possible.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          The foot rest is much further left and exists in both configuration so muscle memory goes to the same place to rest your left foot when you’re not using it.

          The brake pedal in a manual is narrower and in an automatic it usually is the width of the manual pedal + the space between the brake and clutch pedal from a manual. If out of habit you reach for the clutch in an automatic chances are you’ll hit the brake pedal just enough to scare you.

        • RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          7 months ago

          Exactly. For over ten years I regularly switched between manual and automatic and this meme happened zero times.

          I quite often did stall the engine of the manual at red lights though.

          • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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            7 months ago

            I used to drive cars for a living for over a decade and even I can admit that must have happened to me once or twice

          • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            So you literally had the opposite problem but can’t imagine someone having this one.

            • RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              7 months ago

              Yes, because while muscle memory may make your foot move (or not as in my case), I’ve never seen a car where the break pedal is broad enough to be anywhere close to where the clutch would be.

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      No, you’re used to pressing the clutch when you’re about to brake so you reach for the left pedal with your left foot out of habit and surprise mother fucker, it’s the brake pedal!

  • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    I’ve done this in my ambulance and nearly ate the steering wheel. All that weight DOES NOT like coming to a sudden stop

  • Got_Bent@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Every once in a blue moon, I will slam my left foot into an empty space on the floor.

    The brake is a right foot pedal, and I’m not sure what models others are speaking of when they say automatic brake pedals are wider. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that.

    I think it’s been over twenty years since I’ve driven a manual transmission. I wonder if I could still do it. In my younger years when such cars were still common, it was second nature, but here 'murca, it’s tough to even find one if you want one anymore.

    • Sylvartas@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      This

      VS this

      The brake pedal in the first picture is more than twice as wide as the accelerator, and it’s only about ~50% wider in the second picture

    • WIZARD POPE💫@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      We have both types at home and yes the brake pedal on the automatic is twice as wide as the gas one. The only way for me to prevent using my left foot is to have it on the little rest spor on the left.

    • NaoPb@eviltoast.org
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      7 months ago

      Well, judging fron the foot slamming, you haven’t completely forgotten how to drive a manual. So I’d say you’ll still be able to drive those after getting used to them for a bit.

      As for the pedals, it is possible since to hit the brake with the left foot by mistake. Since not all foot wells are designed the same and in my experience the automatic brake pedals usually are quite a bit wider.

  • credit crazy@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    As a guy who dailys a manual and weekend woriors a automatic car from the 50s it gets even more confusing because dispute not having a clutch it does have a floor dimmer switch so I still have 3 pedals and if I screw it up at night then sorry about blinding the guy in front of me with my upgraded led headlights

    • psycho_driver@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      My parents 77 ford maybe f-150 (not sure if they were called that yet–actually I think it was something starting with an E) had the floor dimmer switch.

      On topic though, I have driven manuals for 31 years now and currently have 3 5-speeds and 2 automatics in my driveway and I’ve never done this. What’s wrong with you people?

      • credit crazy@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        For me i suppose it doesn’t help that im also experienced 30s and 20s cars that have button pedals so everything but the brakes feel like a dimmer switch so I guess that also doesn’t help

    • Turious
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      7 months ago

      The clutch is a third pedal to the left of the brake which lets you disengage the engine and transmission so you can change the gear then let the pedal out, engaging the new gear.

      With a clutch, the brake pedal is usually really narrow. So when you get into an automatic instincts will tell you to press the clutch and change gears but that pedal doesn’t exist and the wide brake pedal is there instead. Instead of changing gears, you slam the brake.

      • DannyBoy@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        Also you press the clutch pedal a lot harder and quicker than the brake pedal so you really slam it.

        • 𝕾𝖕𝖎𝖈𝖞 𝕿𝖚𝖓𝖆@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          I actually have done this in my auto Civic after daily driving my manual Prelude for a while. The good thing is I was only moving about 8 miles an hour when it happened, so it looked weird. Would be kind of cool to have the narrow brake pedal in the Civic lol

          But yeah, I’ve been thinking about swapping the auto Civic for a manual Accord of the same vintage.

    • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Needs to explain why they think the clutch would be so far to the right.

      I’m thinking the OP doesn’t understand how to drive a manual.

      • Shellbeach@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Or they don’t know how to drive automatic and brake with their left foot. Either way, it doesn’t check out

        • Longpork3@lemmy.nz
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          7 months ago

          I’ve done it before. Granted it was one of the first times I’d driven an auto, but the reflex to engage the clutch for rolling to a stop, combined with the extra wide brake pedal can be a real gotcha.

        • credit crazy@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Eh there’s also sometimes the foot e brake and sometimes when you’re thinking really fast and maybe have done a few switching from car to car you might just try to start a car and move with the e brake engaged thinking it was a clutch

      • Addv4@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        A lot of cars with automatics and manuals have slightly different brake pedal sizes for the same models (bigger on automatics usually, takes a bit of the space a clutch might). So theoretically it makes some sense.

      • qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website
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        7 months ago

        Probably because we don’t dead reckon off the position of the gas pedal, but rather, our mental shortcut is, “clutch is furthest left pedal.”

        As others have said, brake on automatic tends to be a wide pedal. Pedals on a smaller car or sports car tend to be small and very close together for heel and toe and whatnot.

        • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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          7 months ago

          Pedals on a smaller car or sports car tend to be small and very close together

          Exactly. Nobody is making this mistake in a semi, with the throttle and brake all the way on the right and the clutch (if it exists) all the way on the left, and a huge gap in between, but a little car, and big feet? Absolutely

      • 0ops@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        I’ve never owned an auto, only manuals. But there’s been a couple times when I drove automatics for friends and family and accidently slammed my left foot into the floor or brake due to muscle memory. The pedals are close together in modern manual cars so you can heal toe, and automatic gas pedals are nearly always wider, because why wouldn’t they be?

        So yeah, not only do I believe op drives a manual, I bet they do it often enough that when they do drive an auto they have to consciously hold their left foot back. I know I have to. I’ve been using a clutch too long, my left foot just wants to go.

  • thequikone@lemmynsfw.com
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    7 months ago

    If you’re new to automatics, or don’t drive them often, the trick is to tuck your left foot behind your right leg to stop you from doing this.

  • exanime@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I understood this joke… then felt sad because I felt old… then felt mad because I miss my manual cars…

  • Sorgan71@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I’ve had to drive manuals at work and after a day of it I do this driving home at least twice.