How many people on the spectrum drive, and when did you get your license?

[Crossbreed]

I was 19 or 20 when I got my license. It took me awhile to get relaxed behind the wheel. I used to do long distance bicycling, so I was comfortable with the rules of the road. I just had to get a feel for cars.

I can drive stick, but I don't like to.

 

[TheGuyWithTheTacoma]

I don't drive; I'm too scared to do so, plus I don't exactly have the hand-eye coordination

No problem with that at all. When I first got my permit, I was freaked out by other vehicles moving so close to me.

By the way, I have double vision. When I was 14 or so, I was worried I would not be able to drive. However, my eye doctor assured me I would be able to drive. I can pass the vision test with flying colors!

 

[Misery]

Van? LOL that's about a 2009 Toyota RAV4...

I'm not scared of driving, but sometimes I think I should be.

Eh, it's a van as far as I'm concerned. Big, blocky, lots of interior space, and doesnt back up well. As opposed to my previous car which was quite a bit smaller and had hardly any space.

That's as technical as I get though. Just "van" or "car". Not like a specific brand (as if I'd know any). Heck if I could tell any apart.

Except semis. Those are "wheeled bricks that wont get out of the way". School buses are "Infested Twinkies". Both are less annoying than trains though at least.

 

[Frostee]

I was 19 or 20 when I got my license. It took me awhile to get relaxed behind the wheel. I used to do long distance bicycling, so I was comfortable with the rules of the road. I just had to get a feel for cars.

I can drive stick, but I don't like to.

Can most Americans drive manual?

 

[Crossbreed]

Can most Americans drive manual?

I don't know, but I don't think so.

When I was starting to drive, you had to pay a little extra if you wanted an automatic transmission. Street racers (not me) prefer(red) stick because they could accelerate faster.

 

[TheGuyWithTheTacoma]

Can most Americans drive manual?

Definitely not. I am one of only two people in my "inner circle" of friends who can, and the other guy (not autistic) is a truck driver so he has to know how to drive manual

 

[Frostee]

So would it just be about 10% then? Or is it really rare?

 

[Fino]

I got my license when I was seventeen. I had to take the test on an automatic and then use a manual long-term because my manual car didn't pass the tests required for cars to be able to be used for testing.

 

[Sherlock77]

I got my driver's license when I was 24, later then many of my friends at the time... And now I've been driving for 24 years, clean driving record for many years now... I've only ever had one speeding ticket... Most of my driving is very urban, living close to downtown, and spending much of my spare time downtown...

To the topic of a manual transmission, I only have one car and it's manual transmission (in Canada), where most people here drive with an automatic, I wouldn't own anything but a manual transmission, even with downtown driving

And I love road tripping on the Canadian prairies, really anywhere, my subcompact Hyundai is no stranger to gravel roads, that's where I get some of the best photos! And I've driven 12 hour days...

A couple of photos of my car while out on road trips...

 

[HannahMarie]

Not totally sure whether I'm on the spectrum, but I got my learner's permit at 16 and license at 17. I did fail the test for my license the first time, but passed on the second try. For those first few years of having my license though, I didn't drive much. Pretty much just to school and dance class which were both just a few miles from home. I had a fear of driving on the interstate for the longest time. But I did finally conquer that when I was 20 and had a job that required a longer commute. To this day though, I don't go anywhere without a GPS. I could never even survive going to unfamiliar places if it weren't for GPS, because I am so terrible with directions and finding my way around new places. I avoid really busy roads/highways that require a lot of merging. That always terrifies me, plus I have poor spatial awareness and feel like I'm not very able to judge how much space I really have. At night it's even worse, when I can't even see the cars very well, just the headlights (which kind of blind me anyway).

 

[Nervous Rex]

I drive .... badly.

I got my license at 17. I failed the driving test the first time and should have failed the second time, but the driving instructor took pity on me and let me pass. She should not have.

In 33 years of driving, I have never gone more than 2 years without a ticket. My worst was 2 tickets in 2 states on the same day. I have hit two dogs, a bird, a cat, a horse, a school bus, and a few other cars (not all in the same accident).

I've finally gotten old enough and (hopefully) mature enough to take my time and be a little more zen on the road. But it's still all I can do to not reach for any distraction to keep myself entertained because looking straight ahead and not dying is apparently not stimulating enough.

I am the person they made self-driving cars for.

 

[Crossbreed]

..., a horse,...!

Really!?

...because looking straight ahead and not dying is apparently not stimulating enough.

I am the person they made self-driving cars for.

Those "cars" do not care if their occupants or contents survive...

Understanding the fatal Tesla accident on Autopilot and the NHTSA probe - Electrek
Tesla Model 3 driver again dies in crash with trailer, Autopilot not yet ruled out - Electrek

In the earlier incident, the driver's head remained in the canopy, while his body remained with the car...

 

[Nervous Rex]

...a horse...

Really!?

Ayup. It was 8pm on a November evening, on a country road. I was doing 55 in a 45 zone. Someone's horses got out. I had just dimmed my headlights for an oncoming car. When the car passed, I saw two horses in the road, both with their rears in my lane and not enough time to stop. I came as close to the one on my side without hitting it and hit the one on the right side. I knocked it's back legs out from under it and it's rump hit my windshield. The car was totaled. The horse walked away.

I am the person they made self-driving cars for.

Those "cars" do not care if their occupants or contents survive...

Yeah, they're too expensive and they're not as safe as they need to be. If I can last another 10-15 years on my own on the road, maybe they'll be a more reasonable choice then.

 

[Xerces Blue]

I didn't pursue my driver's licence until I was 17.
I got most of the required driving hours and then I turned 18 and it didn't matter anymore.
Took the tests and aced them both first time.
The first vehicle I owned was a motorcycle.
my second a Baja Bug (it was a franken-car, title 1962, chassis 1968, engine 1972 which takes some legal gymnastics)
In 2008 I learned how to drive several military vehicles, Hmmwv, deuce and a half, 5 tonne, LMTV (armored and unarmored) Air brakes, High/Low transfer case.
Only reason I don't go for a commercial licence is I get what is known as "Highway Hypnosys" and can fall asleep at the wheel and so I don't like driving more than 3 hours at a time without company or breaks.

 

[FreeDiver]

Figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that the number of cars with auto gearboxes has risen by over 70 per cent since 2007. A total of 8.4 million automatic cars are now on Britain's roads.

In 2017, 40 per cent of all news cars were fitted with an automatic gearbox, including CVT and 'semi-automatic' varieties. It's thought that consumers enjoy the relative ease with which automatic cars are operated.

Automatic gearbox sales increase 70 per cent since 2007

Sales of automatic cars to overtake manual motors within two years

The figure might be more than 50% now I cannot find a statistic.

One of the original reasons why manual transmissions were the preferred choice of European drivers was for their better fuel economy. Older automatic transmissions used a torque converter that didn't lock and thus would slip at all times causing about a 10-15% loss in fuel economy. It's only in the last 20 years that automatic transmissions are now outfitted with a torque converter bypass clutch a.k.a a torque converter lock that now allowed automatics to have the same fuel economy as their manual counterpart.

 

[Xerces Blue]

I prefer a Standard transmission just because it's more fun.

 

[Progster]

I can drive, and I got my license when I was 21.
I've never had or driven a car with an automatic gearbox.

 

[Autistamatic]

Took my test aged 25. Didn't bother before because I had no need to drive. Passed first time and have driven now for 24 years without incident. Clean license and no insurance claims.

I drive a manual out of preference. I did have an automatic for 3 years (2004-2007) and I loathed it. Despite the claims to the contrary, the fuel economy was pants and the lack of control was frustrating. I drive a Qashqai at the moment.

 

[Monachopia]

I was 26 when I passed, but it took 2-3 years of lessons (with long breaks in between sometimes) to learn. My partner insisted I learn in a manual, so it took some time before the hand-eye coordination thing stopped being an issue. I have a manual VW Golf now that I love and find automatics feel like go-carts...

Though driving isn't my favourite thing to do and generally if I don't have to do it, I won't.

 

[Bolletje]

I don’t drive. I took a lot of lessons, but I get very anxious in busy traffic so I stopped again. Especially since I live in a city with hundreds of thousands of cyclists who usually ignore every traffic rule. Sometimes I’d get out of the car and just burst out in tears from all the stress. I really would like to be able to drive but I don’t think it will ever happen.