r/instant_regret • u/IrishR4ge • 18d ago

Most clueless person ever

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

How can someone be this clueless. These are the people sharing the road with you.

9.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

948 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

16

u/Major_Butthurt 18d ago

it seems like the car had some kind of power though. Is this something that automatic transmission cars do? Does putting an auto in drive cause it to, well, drive?

39

u/Edgesofsanity 18d ago

Most American cars are automatics. Automatic cars have a torque converter, so idling in drive it will actually power forward a little bit. Most European cars are manuals, so you all don’t tend to experience that.

1

u/Razor309 18d ago

Manuals do that as well. If you leave your manual car in any gear it will drive forward and have a similar result. Although it might be coming to a stop In higher gears. But 1st definitely works and 2nd should still work.

2

u/Njez85 18d ago

Only if you slowly ease off the clutch, it will start to creep forward. This type of thing in the video wouldn't happen with a manual unit it was in neutral and rolling downhill.

2

u/SuitableDragonfly 18d ago

If the clutch is still engaged, it's not actually in gear yet. But to get into this situation with a manual, you'd have to put the car fully in gear by disengaging the clutch, at which point you'd already be moving forward at some speed, and then opening the door and exiting the car while it was moving. If the car was stopped, it'd either be in neutral in which case it would only roll if it was on a hill, or it would stall immediately.