People should learn to drive in the most basic car possible, without driver aids such as parking sensors, reversing camera etc. in order to understand what to do when something goes wrong with the tech when actually driving
Replies
The ideal would also be for driver's tests to be simulated so real life hazards could be put in.
aug 30, 2025, 3:35 pm • 0 0 • view
Statistically, skills don't improve; cars do. The standard driving licence syllabus, including theory test, should include the fact that 100% of drivers think they're in the top 50% of ability; and actually they're all human, shite, and need all the help they can get not to crash and die.
aug 30, 2025, 5:30 pm • 0 0 • view
What’s the point? In 20 years time nobody will drive anywhere. The machines would have taken control.
aug 30, 2025, 6:12 pm • 0 0 • view
A lot of drivers should spend a year walking and cycling.
aug 30, 2025, 12:24 pm • 0 0 • view
They should remove the fuse from the power steering too!
aug 30, 2025, 10:31 am • 0 0 • view
Funnily enough, I did learn in such a car...
aug 30, 2025, 7:58 am • 1 0 • view
Heading towards a trained incapacity...👀
aug 30, 2025, 7:57 am • 0 0 • view
do you know how your keyboard actually works? Until you do, perhaps you should just do cursive on paper.
aug 30, 2025, 2:25 pm • 0 0 • view
Or start them on a small motorbike. It raises awareness of what is around you far more than sitting in a metal box.
aug 30, 2025, 8:29 am • 5 0 • view
A bike
aug 30, 2025, 12:49 pm • 0 0 • view
First car 1966 was an Austin A30 which jumped out of second gear and had a switch on dashboard for pop up indicators; passed on an Austin A35 which seemed luxurious. Dad taught me to double declutch.
aug 30, 2025, 12:58 pm • 0 0 • view
With manual transmission.
aug 30, 2025, 7:56 am • 0 0 • view
This is the main thing stopping me going electric. Automatics are so dull Also if you pass inan auto you can't drive a manual
aug 30, 2025, 9:46 am • 1 0 • view
As someone whose offspring is currently learning how to drive - nowadays learning how to use driving aids, and how to cope without them, is part of the syllabus. Tl;dr: standard boomer opinion that everything should be the same as back in their day.
aug 30, 2025, 7:59 am • 7 0 • view
I don't think it is. Driving aids are such now that its like the difference between a manual and automatic. If you learn the basics you can add the bells and whistles, just like a manual license allows you drive an automatic, but not vice versa.
aug 30, 2025, 8:46 am • 0 0 • view
OK, was merely talking from my daughter's own experience with her instructor this week, but you're fine to believe otherwise.
aug 30, 2025, 12:32 pm • 0 0 • view
It's not a boomer attitude to recognise that learning the basics is important - its not people just wishing for the old days, its people - the children of boomers - understanding how things work.
aug 30, 2025, 1:31 pm • 0 0 • view
And because insurance is so punishingly expensive, for the first few years, young drivers can only afford to drive a small old 2nd hand petrol manual drive with no bells and whistles
aug 30, 2025, 10:32 am • 0 0 • view
Exactly - if you can drive the most basic 15yr old manual Fiesta you can drive anything which is handy until you have a spare £40k for a car that drives for you. If you pass in your parents car that makes all the decision you should get a restricted license, like for automatics!
aug 30, 2025, 10:37 am • 1 0 • view
I think you can avoid driving aids by wearing rubber gloves.
aug 30, 2025, 8:04 am • 11 0 • view
You only get that from toilet seats.
aug 30, 2025, 8:53 am • 1 0 • view
aug 30, 2025, 2:18 pm • 0 0 • view
That's the guy!
aug 30, 2025, 3:27 pm • 1 0 • view
It's anecdotal evidence but I'm afraid I for one am going to have to agree with OP. Our oldest managed to shred a tyre during parking four times in her first year and to this day is convinced that it's the car's fault because it didn't have 360° cameras like the one in which she learned to drive.
aug 30, 2025, 8:29 am • 0 0 • view
Agreed. I have parking sensors/rear view camera etc but just came from a holiday where the rental car had none of that.
aug 30, 2025, 12:08 pm • 0 0 • view
all drivers should learn to drive in an Automatic first. You need to learn how to drive the car in relation to the road and traffic on it before worrying about gears etc. Once you have mastered road craft, you can advance. surgeons dont start with brain surgery.
aug 30, 2025, 9:44 am • 1 0 • view
Are you USian? 🤔
aug 30, 2025, 10:34 am • 3 0 • view
It's not exactly brain-surgery though. In 5 - 10 hours you go from 'what's this round thing in front of me' to being able to control the car and move it about comfortably. The rest is about learning what to do in traffic.
aug 30, 2025, 4:40 pm • 0 0 • view
maybe not, but some tools still manage to live their whole lives without figuring out how to drive or interact with other traffic
aug 30, 2025, 8:19 pm • 0 0 • view
It's not difficult enough for it to be worthwhile removing. And knowing how to drive manual means you can have cheaper and lighter cars.
aug 30, 2025, 8:24 pm • 0 0 • view
i didnt say dont learn, I said learn to control the car in traffic first without distraction of gears, then learn to drive a manual. if you drive on our roads you'll know why its imperative people learn how to interact with other traffic better than they do.
aug 30, 2025, 9:06 pm • 0 0 • view
Whose roads are yours? You've got me wondering where you're from.
aug 30, 2025, 9:15 pm • 0 0 • view
And be able to shoe and ride a horse just in case this car and all bikes also go wrong?
aug 30, 2025, 12:19 pm • 1 0 • view
Heck, the car I learned to drive in had a manual choke and window winders. It didn’t even have two wing mirrors.
aug 30, 2025, 8:29 am • 3 0 • view
Did it have two mirrors before your lesson?
aug 30, 2025, 9:32 am • 3 0 • view
No, a wing mirror on the passenger door used to be an optional extra, (like a radio, and a heated rear windscreen.) In the eighties, most cars were really basic.
aug 30, 2025, 9:35 am • 1 0 • view
Unless your pic is over 20 years old, you’re not old enough to have driven a car without at least a driver side wing mirror: became a mandatory MOT requirement in 1978
aug 30, 2025, 10:37 am • 0 0 • view
I learned to drive in a Vauxhall Nova in 1988. The car was maybe five years old. It didn’t have a wing mirror on the passenger door. And yes, I’m blessed with youthful good looks.
aug 30, 2025, 10:53 am • 2 0 • view
Can confirm. My C-reg (1985?) Vauxhall Nova didn't have a passenger-side wing mirror. Also, the MOT doesn't require a car to have equipment it wasn't legally required to have when it was built. So feel free to jump about on the back seat! No rear seat-belts!
aug 30, 2025, 4:35 pm • 1 0 • view
My C reg nova did, someone must've splashed out when it was new.
aug 30, 2025, 5:33 pm • 2 0 • view
Maybe that wasn't the original door! Which variant was it? Mine was the 1.2 litre two door salon. I think it is fair to say that it was the least desirable version.
aug 30, 2025, 5:35 pm • 1 0 • view
1.0 (993cc 45hp) merit in silver moss metallic. Like this one (except mine didn't have side repeaters or a roof rack)
aug 30, 2025, 7:39 pm • 2 0 • view
Did it stall every time you pressed the clutch?
aug 30, 2025, 7:50 pm • 0 0 • view
Bring back the man with the red flag as well
aug 30, 2025, 10:12 am • 0 0 • view
People should ride a bike in traffic when learning to drive. Then maybe they'll pay more attention and be aware of the danger they present, and put their phones DOWN!
aug 30, 2025, 10:23 am • 5 0 • view
Do they let you use a rear camera during the parallel parking part of the exam? I thought they didn’t
aug 30, 2025, 3:55 pm • 0 0 • view
Don't these new Tech-riddled cars shut down completely immediately they blow a fuse?
aug 30, 2025, 2:51 pm • 0 0 • view
Absolutely. They get hooked in these things.
aug 30, 2025, 12:57 pm • 0 0 • view
Preferably with no electric starter, automatic choke, power steering or servo assisted brakes as well yeah?
aug 30, 2025, 8:00 am • 12 0 • view
You should have to assemble it before being allowed to drive it too.
aug 30, 2025, 1:19 pm • 2 0 • view
That's how it was in Romania.
aug 30, 2025, 4:26 pm • 2 0 • view
I have a car with manual choke, starting handle and no power steering. It does have an electric starter and servo assisted brakes, though. It also has sixteen forward gears and four reverse gears. It's the most fun car to drive I've owned. Managed to get it up to 70mph a few times...
aug 30, 2025, 9:26 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes. Its how I learned to drive in 2004. If you can drive like that you can drive anything. If you learn with all the bells and whistles you're stuck when the bells and whistles are gone - hence the automatic license thing.
aug 30, 2025, 8:44 am • 0 0 • view
I had a young female driver complain that “the steering had locked”. It was actually just a power-steering failure. She’d never driver a car without PS before and had no idea turning the wheel could be that hard.
aug 30, 2025, 10:27 am • 1 0 • view
I really struggled to learn to park when I got power steering... my arm movements and effort didn't match the movements the car made. Having been taught by an ex rally driver I feel less in control in new cars. I want to use the car, not have it use me!
aug 30, 2025, 10:46 am • 1 0 • view
I did. No power steering, manual choke. Over a quarter of a century since that car limped into the scrapyard, I haven't needed to use any of the additional skills I learned driving it. Still the experience is helpful when boomers and gen-x-ers start condescending me about how cars used to be.
aug 30, 2025, 11:06 am • 0 0 • view
A lot of people would benefit from doing the cbt and spending 6 months riding a scooter before graduating to a car.
aug 30, 2025, 8:26 am • 6 0 • view
It would certainly train them to be more aware of their presence on the road, and to actually see vehicles other than cars.
aug 30, 2025, 10:45 am • 3 0 • view
I certainly noticed the difference going from the car I learned in (a 1993 Austin Metro) to my first car (a 1985 Vauxhall Nova). It didn't have all the gadgets I was used to, like a ... fifth gear... automatic choke... umm... passenger-side wing-mirror... a key-hole in the passenger door...
aug 30, 2025, 4:28 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes, or these things should all be turned off, even more so on the test.
aug 30, 2025, 10:33 am • 0 0 • view
My greatest day will be sometime around 2050 when all of the bugs of self driving have not only worked out, but it’s a mandatory item for all cars going forward. I SO look forward to the day when angry Chads on the road aren’t able to aggressively break every traffic law that exists.
aug 31, 2025, 3:06 pm • 0 0 • view
How’s that going to help? The cars don’t revert to 1980s technology magically when there’s a failure of modern tech..
aug 30, 2025, 9:04 am • 1 0 • view
I don’t know what sort of car your instructors had, but I learned, 12 years ago, in a Vauxhall Corsa. The only addition was dual foot controls, so my instructor could stop me ploughing into a pedestrian or a bus. I didn’t, by the way.
aug 30, 2025, 1:19 pm • 0 0 • view
aug 30, 2025, 8:31 am • 0 0 • view
A lot of us did that, including a manual choke 😉
aug 30, 2025, 8:10 am • 3 0 • view
They're talking about the young people just learning to drive. They won't have a clue what to do when their system goes down.
aug 30, 2025, 9:11 am • 0 0 • view
No car is going to grow a choke control on the dash if the automatic one stops working though. And they’re not that hard to work
aug 30, 2025, 9:17 am • 0 0 • view
No modern car even has a choke anymore, that's caveman tech. Cars today have fuel injection.
aug 30, 2025, 10:46 am • 1 0 • view
Today’s “modern cars” are electric
aug 30, 2025, 10:48 am • 0 0 • view
I'm talking about cars, not four door golf carts.
aug 30, 2025, 10:49 am • 1 0 • view
You’re hilarious, do you tour with that material?
aug 30, 2025, 10:53 am • 0 0 • view