Elon Musk

I kinda feel like all prospective drivers should have to log like 100 hours with a psychologist in the passenger seat gauging their general mental and emotional fitness to pilot a multi-ton death machine.

Driver's ed used to be part of the public school curriculum. I think some schools still offer it, but most do not. Private driving schools are an alternative. Having three kids who took the course, I'd say it produced . . . mixed results.

xpost And then the only way to pass the test is to admit you shouldn't be driving. The only way to win the game is not to play the game!

Our high school offers driver's ed, it's super useful, and if you pass it, you don't have to take the test at the DMV.

Speaking of curriculum

Elon Musk has plans to open a new university in Texas, according to tax filings.

Bloomberg reported the filings show Musk donated $100m to his charity, The Foundation, to establish a primary and secondary Stem school in Austin – and later to seek accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges for launching a university.

The Foundation said the curriculum for the school and university would “combine formal instruction by experienced faculty in subjects such as mathematics, science, engineering and physics, alongside hands-on learning experience including simulations, case studies, fabrication/design projects, and labs”.

Not the 'Musk Foundation' - THE FOUNDATION, as if there were no other

Further echoes of Kanye. Will the teachers be AI terminals?

Cool, yes, let's get more people out there making cars crash and rockets explode and creating online nazi hangouts, please and as quickly as possible

Nazi Moon Mars Base

They can have it, I would be thrilled if every Nazi moved to Mars.

With no space suits.

Driver's ed used to be part of the public school curriculum. I think some schools still offer it, but most do not. Private driving schools are an alternative. Having three kids who took the course, I'd say it produced . . . mixed results.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, December 14, 2023 4:46 PM bookmarkflaglink

anybody can drive around on a closed course in circles, but at least it teaches you how to start the car and get it moving without running over someone in a parking lot

supposedly someone in my brother's driver's ed class crashed the car while dicking around

Give that man a license.

I nearly ran the car over a raised median in driver's ed. TBF I really had like zero idea what I was doing or how to control the dang thing.

our teacher tried to scare everybody by showing videos of people burning alive in car wrecks and the aftermath and calling them "crispy critters" and warning us we'd turn into critters if we didn't learn how to drive and that maybe 25% of us would be critters even if we drove perfectly

One day of our class was spent watching a video of a Jeep using its winch to get out of a sand dune. Maybe useful info for future Cybertruck owners.

I did driver's ed at Sears, we had to do a lot of real driving but our parallel parking was a couple of cones in the parking lot. Given how often I'm doing 80 to keep up with traffic in a 75 zone, it's weird to get flashbacks of the terror the first time my instructor was like "okay, time to get on the highway!" and the limits were all still 55 around here then.

I got yelled at because I panic braked and swerved when a dog ran into the road in front of us. "Just hit the dog" is technically a sound bit of advice but I'd probably still risk my life and anyone in another lane if that happened.

I hate driving (and dont drive) and part of that is thanks to my mother trying to teach me and being a complete panicky freakouter. I was trying to slowly pull the car over onto a grassy shoulder (in a country town with NO traffic) and she fucking shrieked at me OMG OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING as if I was just idly running off the road.

Fuck that shit.

I taught both of my kids, and I did my best to stay quiet and neutral but boy did I breathe a sigh of relief once we got home and I changed out of my sweat-soaked shirt.

Same here. Although, two of my three kids who drive are better drivers than I am now.

I know it's rockist and all but I do think learning how to drive on manual transmission forces you to think more about what you're doing. Neither of my kids drive yet, but the thing I keep telling them is, this is the most dangerous thing you will do every day. You need to pay attention to it.

Good luck finding a car with manual transmission in the US.

our teacher tried to scare everybody by showing videos of people burning alive in car wrecks and the aftermath and calling them "crispy critters" and warning us we'd turn into critters if we didn't learn how to drive and that maybe 25% of us would be critters even if we drove perfectly

Yeah, we got to watch the death movies in high school too. A couple of years later I saw some of the same movies being projected behind the Butthole Surfers while they played, which lessened the impact somewhat.

After driving only stick since 1990, our cars are now automatic only and I feel the opposite. Not having to think about shifting keeps my hands on the wheel and me focused on the road. It's also much nicer when you do a lot of stop-and-go driving.

Good luck finding a car with manual transmission in the US.

I own one, but we bought it in 1997. We're willing to sell it to any interested ilxor for a fair price!

"okay, time to get on the highway!"

^^^ very vivid memories of this, a nightmarish white-knuckle experience of sweat and absolute terror.

My driver's ed instructor taught me how to whip shitties and do J turns.

Good luck finding a car with manual transmission in the US.

Oh I know, and I'm not rockist enough to buy one just to make my kids learn on it. But it does require a different level of engagement. I think engagement is good when you're learning to drive.

And PBKR, I agree. Mostly thinking about learning to drive, just the mechanics of thinking about when you're accelerating and decelerating, thinking about the machine you're operating.

xxxps, still occasionally get a dissociated feeling sometimes thinking about how millions of us are zipping around at 80mph in two tons of steel. The only comparable feeling I get is sitting still on a runway and watching a jumbo jet take off on a parallel runway. We’re all constantly spitting in God’s eye.

You shouldn’t be driving 80mph probably

You shouldn’t be driving 80mph probably

i tried to learn to drive and got worse as the lessons went on

i love that this turned into manual vs automatic because i read the article upstream yesterday (without seeing the follow up discussion above this post). driving later yesterday i got thinking about 75% of cars in europe are manual-- it sorta freaked me out wrt driving behavior. despite visits there, i had no idea of that difference in man/auto norms.

for me, and to me, it's a huge change in driver behavior and engagement. there is significantly less required attention with automatic imo.

i learned and lived to 30 y/o only on manual. i mostly got automatic because it allows more space for the distractions of kids. and to be sure, i don't think i was consciously thinking "hey i can be more dangerous and pay attention to things off the road." it was just clearly "easier" to me. but in thinking last evening, that ability to engage in distracted driving is the precise effect. and probably i still wouldn't wish to return to manual for most matters, automatic transmissions are geared and shift behavior is adequate for how i drive now.

came to thread hoping to comment suchly and was only a little surprised the thread jumped on it meanwhiles.

I recently test drove a couple of cars with my 22 year old, who was buying his first new-ish car. He saw a VW Golf, very sporty, with a five-speed. He stalled it out about five times in a left hand turn lane lol. To be fair, it had a really sensitive clutch.

My sister and sister-in-law both had to learn to drive stick on the other side of the car/road, I can't even imagine.

the first time I drove stick it was the company truck for this factory I was working at. I had to go to a place 25 miles away and it was terrifying. because I really didn't know how to drive stick. and I told them that repeatedly. but apparently I was the guy who had to do it (because I'd only been working there 3 weeks I guess) so I got a 2 minute tutorial and was sent on my merry way. I think I stalled it out at every single intersection. but then the second stickshift I drove it was mostly fine. this truck's clutch apparently was just really bad. thanks, guys!

That's why they call them clutch players, because if given a two-minute tutorial on how to drive stick they get it done.

having yoru kid drive you for the first time is truly a test of the nerves

having your kid teach you how to drive even more so

esp when the child seat doesn't get high enough

My kid passed his test about three hours ago (UK). He's had a fucker of a time since the pandemic and it's the one thing he can focus on without impediment; I couldn't be happier for him. (And I can genuinely say I've always felt safe with him in the car.)
Now I've got to sell a bollock to afford the extraordinarily expensive insurance.

Fwiw, I'm glad I learned manual. It was never really presented as a choice when I learned (early 90s) - everyone taught in manual and you had to properly search out someone teaching automatic.

I learned manual on an 91 Ford Ranger we called the Deranger in the Humboldt hills, bless those days.

I learned to drive manual on a 1979 VW Rabbit, which was old even then (1990)

I'm terrified of my kid driving. She's 14 so I should probably start letting her practice in parking lots. She's pretty erratic and clumsy as it is, I can't imagine what driving is going to be like. She has driven an old car out at my parents place in the country and that wasn't too bad.

I'm glad we're not in Houston anymore. That would be a shit city for a new learner.

I've driven a tractor at slow chugging pace through a field, and electric go-karts, dodgems, but no fucking chance a car on the roads and motorways with many other vehicles. That's just an insane idea. Once a boss offered me a more than decent payrise and he offered to pay for a few months worth of driving lessons if I showed some genuine interest in getting a driving license. I said thanks, but no thanks.

If I had to learn to drive with a manual, I would never have learned how to drive. I've tried several times to learn how to drive one and failed each time. It's like middle school algebra: something I should be able to do that seems to be forever beyond me.

I passed my driver's test on automatic. Then a year later got a car that was manual so had to learn that. My Dad and I got in a huge shouting match in the car after he had given me the basics, so I yelled at him to get out and I figured out the rest.