"Manual Transmission Could Be Forced Into Retirement"

[Nickp]

Nick, at what point will we be idiot proof? I too have lost people to automobile accidents. It sucks! But do we outlaw ladders? Guns, definitely get rid of guns. All those sugary sodas...gone, too much diabetes! Fatty foods, gone, too many heart attacks!--(already doing that) Where does it end? One of the main reasons cars are so expensive now is due to all the "tech" being built in! I don't have any hard answers either. l just believe in our mad rush to make EVERYTHING safe, and create this elusive utopia, we are going to slowly but surely lose what makes this country great...our Freedoms! The man knows everything we say, even in the privacy of our own homes now! Every text, call, email, all of it is scanned now in the name of safety. Sorry man, not attacking, just ranting!

Nah it’s all good. Not to get too politics obviously this is just the March of progress. Compared to 100 years ago we do live in a utopia. Which looked like a utopia compared to 100 years prior to that. And 100 years from now will look like a utopia compared to what we currently have. When you look at things on such a large time scale those lines start to get blurred. Hell, 100 years from now all jobs that require ladders may just be robots that people on the ground operate. I can’t even begin to speculate what things could look like in 2121, but car “nannies” have been growing in number for decades and as technology grows that’s not going to slow down, and the marketplace obviously is demanding more. (Hence everyone wanting the high and lux package Broncos)

Luckily, we’ve got Ford still making cars that will kick ass off road because I have a feeling that’s where most of the fun is going to be in future decades.

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[usarms]

More safety features does not make the world “scary” to me.

Seatbelts, airbags, crumple zones, ABS, evasive steering systems, brake pre-load… bring it on.

From a public health stand point they’ve prevented countless needless deaths.

Must be Gen Z. All that crap just makes you a worse, lazy driver and in my opinion less safe. You're supposed to pay attention and actually DRIVE! You should drive your vehicle not the other way around. Geeze what a world...

 

[Rick Astley]

I only have one question Rick..If what you say is true, Why are so many people willing to die to get here? When, quite literally, no other country, to my knowledge, has or is having the immigration problems we have.

Money


Was that so hard to figure out? What would an American do to get rich? That last question was rhetorical, I can simply watch what a congress person does.

 

[Dads_bronze_bronco]

Its mainly the lack of demand that is causing the manual to disappear. Electrification will surely be the end. But emergency braking is irrelevant. Different manufacturers already offer emergency braking with manuals. Some have a simple switch that just pressurizes the clutch fluid (to engage the clutch) when the E braking kicks in. Others, like BMW, just lets the car stall. I think the latter makes more sense. If you just slam on your brakes in a panic stop in any vehicle with a manual transmission and don’t do anything with the clutch pedal, the car will stop just fine, but the engine will stall. No big deal.

But yeah as cars become more automated, they will certainly be less fun (by my definition). My Bronco will be a manual as has been every vehicle I’ve ever owned.

Also, there are cars with adaptive cruise with manuals (BMW and Porsche). There is no problem with that either.

I don't know about you all, but if the Bronco slams it's brakes on, my immediate reaction will be to push on both the brake and clutch pedals anyway. If it stalls, oh well.

 

[RoLyMa27]

Now let me address the MT topic. I too am getting a MT. Having not had one in years I am excited! But, I also have really grown fond of automatic start on my F150. I really want automatic start in my Bronco, but alas, I will not due to the safety police not trusting in me to put my Bronco in neutral and apply the emergency brake!

Edit: Which, by the way will have a start in gear feature! So, technically all I have to do is apply the emergency brake! Which, if you think about it, with an electric emergency brake they could just program the damn thing to apply automatically when the vehicle is killed!

 

[Badplaid72]

https://fordauthority.com/2021/05/m...rced-into-retirement-as-safety-tech-advances/

I know this stated in here Ford has added "safety" features to the Bronco that will become mandatory on all vehicles in the future. Emergency braking, etc.. how autonomous is this world becoming? This is a scary article. To think that not only low take rates for manuals, but now safety requirements would get rid of it? That is ridiculous. There is less texting and driving with a manual, and less distracted driving in general with a manual. What are your thoughts?

This is another reason I'm getting the 7mt. Not ready to let go of the stick.

They said the same thing about Horses when the automobile first starting belching down the road.

 

[RoLyMa27]

Luckily, we’ve got Ford still making cars that will kick ass off road because I have a feeling that’s where most of the fun is going to be in future decades.

I Know Dats Rite! The movie world in Demolition man wasn't as far off as we thought. Truth is stranger than fiction.

 

[campbebc]

I don't know about you all, but if the Bronco slams it's brakes on, my immediate reaction will be to push on both the brake and clutch pedals anyway. If it stalls, oh well.

Right there with ya. The two cars I've owned in the last 10 years (the majority of my driving career) have been manual and it's second nature at this point.

 

[RoLyMa27]

Money

Really??? Although I agree to some extent, you truly can't reduce the millions of people wanting to come to America to just money hungry fools, willing to die for a buck! I think you underestimate a lot of immigrants!

 

[timhood]

its called engine braking

I think you are confusing emergency braking with normal braking wherein one can use the engine to assist in slowing down, while continually downshifting to maintain the proper gear for the speed. I used to do this until it was explained that wear on brake pads is cheaper than wear on the transmission.

For an emergency stop, it has been explained clearly why you do not want to leave the transmission engaged in a high gear while quickly stopping. Regardless, the friction of the brakes during an emergency stop will far exceed the friction of the transmission. You are simultaneously getting no stopping benefit while also subjecting the transmission to unnecessary harm or wear. Bonus prize: by the time you've stopped, you've managed to stall the engine as well.

 

[918v]

I think you are confusing emergency braking with normal braking wherein one can use the engine to assist in slowing down, while continually downshifting to maintain the proper gear for the speed. I used to do this until it was explained that wear on brake pads is cheaper than wear on the transmission.

For an emergency stop, it has been explained clearly why you do not want to leave the transmission engaged in a high gear while quickly stopping. Regardless, the friction of the brakes during an emergency stop will far exceed the friction of the transmission. You are simultaneously getting no stopping benefit while also subjecting the transmission to unnecessary harm or wear. Bonus prize: by the time you've stopped, you've managed to stall the engine as well.

wrong

im not confusing anything

you are not going to damage the trans that way

 

[RoLyMa27]

The implication you had was that Manuals reduce distracted driving as you are more focused on driving the vehicle. Thus safer than an automatic assuming similarly safety equipped automatic vehicle. While I don't necessarily disagree in that scenario, the reality is there are so few instances where that is the case.

The reality is yes, automakers can go through the extra programming, the extra engineering, the extra lockouts to have similar safety features in a manual, such as BMW with their some of their vehicles. But that is an expensive course of action for such a small amount of your customer base. Sure BMW doesn't mind doing it on a 100K car, and even Ford doing it for for a $60K Bronco makes sense. But Honda isn't going to do that with their Civic if they expect to keep it under $30K and compete with other brands which is why manuals are being slowly phased out.

Its just a point of diminishing returns. Its likely a reason why there isn't a manual option for the 2.7L in the Bronco. Ford doesn't want to have engineer a whole other transmission set-up for that in a new vehicle when they already have a 2.3L manual option. All to please what probably amounts to be what, 5K maybe 15K Broncos in MY21 when they selling literally hundreds of thousands of other automatic vehicles.

Like I said, manual vehicles have their niche place in the world and enthusiasts will want them. But the market has bared out (as well as cheaper engineering and programming practices) that automatics are favored by consumers as they're easier to drive, faster, more reliable, more efficient and generally better than the manual counterpart in most circumstances.

Its just cheaper and easier to integrate automated safety features into an already automated portion of the vehicle (transmission) than to try an integrate it into an analog one. Unless the customer demand or profit margin is high (which is on such a small fractional portion of the market share) it just ain't worth it.

Heyyyy, it's scubasteve!!! I want you to know you get blamed for a lot a shit around my house...Damnit Scuba Steve!

 

[Efthreeoh]

What does emergency braking have to do with a manual transmission??? It’s a sensor that applies the brakes. It doesn’t do anything to the transmission.

It also cuts the throttle and the automatic transmission downshifts to a lower gear to match engine speed being retarded by apply the brakes and closing the throttle. A manual transmission needs to me manually shifted, which the driver, if he's not paying attention enough to prevent the automatic braking system to activate, is most likely not going to either downshift the transmission into a lower gear to speed match the engine, or drop into neutral, or disengage the clutch.

 

[ZackDanger]

Must be Gen Z. All that crap just makes you a worse, lazy driver and in my opinion less safe. You're supposed to pay attention and actually DRIVE! You should drive your vehicle not the other way around. Geeze what a world...

You sound old.

 

[The Memedalorian]

More safety features does not make the world “scary” to me.

Seatbelts, airbags, crumple zones, ABS, evasive steering systems, brake pre-load… bring it on.

From a public health stand point they’ve prevented countless needless deaths.

"More safety! Public health!" - someone calling themselves "Zack Danger"

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