Is an Automatic Transmission Safer for the Novice Driver?
**A contributed post as written for The Safe Driver.
It’s a question that crops up more often than not now, especially as so many more people are driving an automatic car. Is an automatic actually safer than a manual transmission? When it comes to answering this question there are many different variables that are exclusive to each type of transmission. It’s not a clear-cut division as to whether one is actually better than the other, but actually, what the skill is of the driver.
Driving an Automatic
The person that drives automatic is less stressed, which will have positive effects on the road. They will have less road rage, and as a result, it’s one of those cars that is beneficial to the novice driver. While driving is a skill that we pick up over the years, now with busy roads everywhere, we need to be good at driving and we need to be good now! So, it’s imperative that with an automatic, in relation to safety, there’s a lot less for you, as the driver, to worry about. That’s not to say that you are immune from problems with an automatic. Because an automatic, to an extent, does the work for you and makes the gear changes for you, the gear might not be the best one at the time. The benefit of hindsight is a wonderful thing, but after a car crash, if you were the culprit, did you have your full attention on the road? Inattention in drivers amounts to approximately 25% of road traffic accidents. This could be down to the fact that automatic drivers aren’t thinking about the act of driving itself, but are driving distracted.
Driving a Manual
The one thing that seasoned drivers state with regards to driving a manual is that they feel they have more control over it. So if a driver was planning to support a problem ahead, they can go into the appropriate gear. For example, if there were ice and debris everywhere, it can be very difficult in an automatic to navigate this, especially uphill. As a driver can make a more educated guess with the right gear to use, this is, to an extent, safer. But, this is in relation to a skilled driver, and now, the act of driving a manual transmission can be more stressful, the novice driver can struggle to do even the most basic of manoeuvres. The one thing that has progressed with manual and automatic transmissions over time is that there are more functions to make the car safer. From anti-lock brakes to lane assist, there are more features to make driving a safer process. As a result, this can mean that the driver takes their attention off the road, and can become easily distracted.
So, if the driver is the culprit in relation to the safety of the vehicle, is a manual transmission the solution? In actual fact, there appears to be no difference between a manual and automatic as far as safety is concerned, but this means that the driver needs to pay more attention to the road. With the rate of traffic accidents increasing, the onus goes back on to the driver to minimize their distractions.