As in power down to the wheels. Just look at super car transmissions that require shifting too fast for most users.

Many phones don’t have NFC or the software prevents you full access(iPhone). Plus what if they just don’t put the phone there? What happens will the car refuse to go? How about if they just don’t have a phone?

True enough, but at 28 I imagine I'm very much behind the average for my demographic

You can safely ignore the opinions of idiots. Driver attention has been studied extensively

Or for boring driving. Of which there is plenty

And that’s the thing, a manual certainly has its place. On one of my trips I knew I’d be going through Jasper National Park which is a nice curvy road with a beautiful view I borrowed a manual from a friend.

And unfortunately that makes up the bulk of people's driving. I drive a lot for work(around 70k kms last year) and I didn't miss my manual even a little on 14 hour long stretches of flat prairies road

Why? People are so in love with the manual, it’s just a holdover from a time when we couldn’t reliably or cheaply make automatics.

No I’m sure it’s a blast. But if you needed to carry 300 people with you you might consider the fatty over the fun.

Into what? The phone? How exactly would you do that? Unless we’re assuming every single one of these people are using their phones connected to their car it won’t work.

So then what if you're on a bus? Or a train? Or a plane? Anything built into the device that prevents you from using it at speed is not a solution if you can't opt out.

Depends how you measure, yes. But in the ways that can be measured and quantified(power, speed, emissions) the auto wins.

That's onboard, very different from the phones that are the subject of this article

It’s entirely possible to enjoy cars without being bogged down by old paradigms that people keep around for sentimental reasons. Manual transmissions existed because of technological limitations. They aren’t special or sacrosanct.

And sadly most driving is that drudgery. Bring on the self driving cars so I can only drive when it's time to enjoy it

So then passengers can’t use phones? This is not even remotely a solution

That constant effort is why automatics are better

Just because something is disgusting doesn’t mean it can’t be used in a story. I think that the purpose of the thing is most important when considering what to include.

Haha, get it girl! I'll be over here being just a bit jealous

I suppose, but I feel like I'm a lot more likely to remember sleeping with someone than getting a lecture on The Plague from a sub. It might be that I never sleep with enough women for it to happen, time will tell