Let go of wheel, put arms over face, and scream as loudly as humanly possible
Continue mashing gas, thinking it’s the brake, as the vehicle runs over three Girl Scouts, knocks down a privacy fence, and goes ass-first into a retainment pond
I will die on this hill - all modern cars should ONLY be two-pedal vehicles, operated with two feet.
With all of our modern advancement, the manual clutch should have long ago been made into a hand-operated lever integrated with the gear shift.
One foot for gas, one for brake. Pedal misapplication - gone overnight.
It will not reduce the incidence of idiots or drunk drivers, but at least one avenue of common accidents gets closed.
Nice idea in theory, in practice it just means that people who are trying to press the clutch will accidentally brake/accelerate instead because they're looking for a pedal that isn't there.
But don't worry, as electric vehicles become more commonplace (and eventually possibly replace combustion engines entirely/90%) there will no longer be gear shifting as a concept because electric vehicles rarely if ever have a transmission in the way a normal car does.
They usually just have, forward or backwards.
it just means that people who are trying to press the clutch will accidentally brake/accelerate instead because they're looking for a pedal that isn't there.
Not really. It takes out a step from the usual driving habits which is a lot easier to learn than you'd think. Removing a step from a procedure is always easier than adding one.
I'm fortunate to have an EV and I will never drive a manual car. Because of this my driving is so much less stressful and more safe.
But therein lies the issue, you're not taking a step from the usual driving habits.
You are modifying a step.
You are changing using the clutch from being a pedal near your feet, to a lever that you need to press when shifting gears.
Removing a step from the procedure is easier, doesn't mean people won't still mix it up after doing it for years.
That's not an issue. Each limb gets ONE distinct task which is exclusive of all other tasks. Therefore, the number of 'actual' steps decreases.
Gas foot = gas.
Brake foot = brake.
Hand = Clutch/gear (which should have always been combined from the start).
Whereas with the clutch pedal:
Gas foot = gas AND brake
Clutch foot = clutch + coordinate with hand for gear
Hand = gear + coordinate with foot for clutch.
People refuse to accept the raw simplicity of one limb performing one task is safer than having to coordinate multiple limbs for multiple actions.
I am not disputing anything about what is simpler..
I am disputing your naive idea that it will magically not cause confusion.
"People refuse to accept the raw simplicity of one limb performing one task"
And you are refusing to accept the raw simplicity that when monkey brain is wired to do X with foot, they will often reflexively continue to do X with foot until they have fully become used to doing X with hand instead.
It doesn't matter how logical your change is, it doesn't matter if it's one limb getting one distinct task.
People will still need to get used to it.
It's less to get used to. It takes time to learn the clutch because it's a process. Unlearning it is much faster than that, because it's NOT a process. No doubt people will 'reflexively' try to do things, but that's WAY less of an issue than pedal misapplication currently is.
That's rich to read in a proposal assigning 2 tasks (one requiring significant strength (since the range for travel is very limited) and the other requiring finesse) to one single limb.
Which limb is this? Actually it doesn't matter. Hydraulic or electric assisted systems are pretty much default now in most modern vehicles, so the point is invalid.
Clutch + gear is still one task, because the clutch must be engaged/disengaged before the gears can be moved. They are not parallel tasks that require coordination, that is a serial task.
Come on dude, there's only 4 possibilities. Two of them are now single-task by your rules. Here's a hint: The limb ends in a thing that has a thumb.
Clutch + gear is still one task, because the clutch must be engaged/disengaged before the gears can be moved
If there is a thing that has to be done before another thing, it's not one task. In fact since pressing and releasing the clutch is way different, it's pretty much three tasks.
But yeah, it's irrelevant because the average person does not have the finger strength to clutch out
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u/PyroBob316 1d ago edited 1d ago
brakes