Manual or automatic cars - which is safer?

In My Humble Opinion
1

There’s been a recent(ish) poll on who drives a manual or automatic car, with results split almost 50-50.

Putting aside all other comparative cost/benefits of the two transmissions, which do you generally believe is the safer to drive?

Googling reveals fierce debate on the subject. What prompted this poll was talking with a copper about an accident and what he called SASH - Sudden Acceleration Syndrome Hypothesis - when a driver in an automatic slams down on the wrong pedal, surging the vehicle forward and causing a collision. However some online commenter make the point that since manual drivers have something else to thing about their attention is focused on something other than the road.

Divided the poll to get some different perspectives.

2

How about “neither” makes no difference.

3

Depends on the person. My wife was never comfortable driving and often has said she feels she should have been born in the horse and buggy era.

I drove a manual for thirteen years while working for a courier service. 8-12 hours a day in SF Bay Area traffic and shifting was pure habit/reflex.

4

Think of it as a person with no experience of driving but who wants to learn and eventually buy one or the other asking you the poll question; what advice do you give?

5

I voted “other” for the same reason.

I can see if someone is a complete newbie how a manual transmission might be a bit of a distraction. Once you get used to it though I can’t imagine anyone focusing that much attention on their shifting.

6

I’d advise the person to learn to drive a manual car.

7

I would agree, and that is why I taught my daughter to drive a manual. I don’t think of either as safer than the other though, but my daughter has made the observation of how does anyone text and drive–especially with a manual as you are always shifting. So in that case I guess you could say a manual is safer.

I suppose with a manual you are constantly thinking and analyzing the road ahead, a curve that you need to shift down for, etc., whereas in an automatic you just steer and the auto transmission shifts for you. One could describe that as more disaffected from the driving experience.

I think a manual is more ‘fun’ to drive though, but safer is a bit of stretch I think.

8

I’d advise to just get an automatic, unless the person specifically wants to learn to drive a manual at some point.

9

other = neither…right?

I don’t “think” about pedals while driving and I have both auto and manual, never confused the two.

10

Manual transmissions are getting more and more rare these days. A lot of folks get by without ever learning how to drive one, and there isn’t any real need to learn.

That said, some people (like me) prefer them, and it is a good thing to know how to do just in case you ever need to drive a car with a stick for some reason.

If you are going to do a lot of city driving, I’d recommend buying an automatic. Stop and go traffic with a clutch is annoying (IMHO).

If you are learning, learn on an automatic first, then learn the stick later once you’ve learned how to control the car.

11

I drove a manual for many years, then one day while driving my ex-wife’s automatic, coming off the freeway, I went to put the clutch in and coast like I always did, but the only pedal in the area was the brake, so I hit it pretty hard.

Doh!

12

I suspect it makes very little difference compared to the attitude and alertness of the driver. Of the two, I’d give automatics a very slight edge. This is based my own experiences of driving unfamiliar manuals. Driving a car I’m used to is fine, but I can have problems adjusting to a new one. It can be a bit distracting, and a problem if I need to pull away fairly quickly, such as from a junction with limited visibility.

13

I would give manual a slight edge for three reasons - you are indeed paying more attention to road conditions so you are in the right gear, it’s harder to text or talk on a handheld phone, and you have more control over the car - I can downshift instead of braking in some conditions.*

I think there is no distraction from having an extra pedal and the gear shift - as others have said, it’s so (no pun intended) automatic to shift that there is no distraction involved.

*You can downshift in an automatic car, too, but I’m fairly sure most people never do.

14

Neither.

15

I think there may be more to that than you think. I got a manual because I like driving manuals, but one thing I notice after years of primarily driving an automatic is that I’m never even tempted to look at my phone while driving. If it rings, and I suspect it may be urgent, I’ll pull over to answer, otherwise I’ll simpy ignore it. There’s nothing else I can do, without a third hand.

16

Make that 3.

I’ve driven both and I currently drive a semi automatic which feels really odd to me because that’s what I learned to drive in mumble years ago.

There are many differences between the two but safety doesn’t seem to be one of them. Inattentive drivers can have accidents in both.

17

Other: I don’t think one is safer than the other.

18

Interesting question. Manuals add some extra steps in driving, but those extra steps help connect the person and the vehicle, which may lead to less distracted driving.

19

“I drive a manual. I have no friggin’ idea if it’s safer or not”. In theory, an automatic should be safer because it is less distracting from other driving tasks.

As to the theory in the OP, a driver of a manual car has one extra wrong pedal to hit by mistake, so that seems a pretty nonsensical reason to claim automatics are more dangerous.

20

I personally think the individual driver is a FAR greater factor in regards to the safety of a motor vehicle as opposed to whether the transmission is manual or automatic.