Automakers can’t quit manual transmissions so they’re cramming fake stuff into EVs

Fallstar@mander.xyz to Technology@beehaw.org – 24 points –
Automakers can’t quit manual transmissions so they’re cramming fake stuff into EVs
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In a manual and EVs, when you take your foot off the brake, nothing happens.

That depends on the car's software - my mother's Renault Zoe slowly accelerates to about 5 km/h if you take your foot off the brake.

My Volt and Mach-e also will creep. In the mach-e it's an option, same as 1 pedal driving. The cool thing about EV's is being able to change the behavior with options to suit your preferences.

I had never heard of one pedal driving until you mentioned it here. After reading about it that sounds like a pretty interesting feature. Do you get to use it very often or is it pretty niche?

I think it's really cool feature for two use cases:

  1. If you're mostly doing freeway cruising
  2. If you have any mobility issues with your feet or legs

But I tend to drive a lot on streets with stoplights. And after having a couple real rough stops when the lights turned yellow right before my go/no-go line, I turned it back off. I just couldn't get used to the abrupt force of the brakes in that mode. I'm sure you could get used to it though, and I might enable it on the freeway for road trips.

I use it all the time in urban settings with my Chevy Bolt. It will slow to a complete stop and there's a paddle on the steering wheel I can use to engage it if I'm not in one pedal mode, or make the Regen braking more aggressive if I am.

My fiat is the same...they really made the transition from ICE to EV extremely minimal, everything feels/act the same.

The thing that gets me is without gears shifting as you accelerate you don't instinctively know how fast you're actually going...I feel like if you've been driving long enough your brain already has some map built in.. like the back of your brain is keeping track and the car shifted 3 times so you're probably going around x speed. I pull away from a light and can't help punching it a little bit but by the time I let off and look down I'm going 58 in a 35!

I don't want to sound like one of those super EV fan boys and I've only had mine for 3ish months...but once you drive an EV for a while you start to wonder why haven't cars always been like this? It makes so much more sense this way! I learned to drive on a manual and always got my cars with manuals so I do miss the engagement/connection to the driving experience but honestly EV is sooo much better (except down shifting into a turn)