My First Automatic Driving Lesson in Hitchin – A Sheer Excitement!
I was pretty excited on the day of my first automatic driving lesson in Hitchin. There are many driving schools offering this type of driving lessons at different rates. It varies from £10 to £25 for an hour long lesson. Some schools even offer a package, for example, £60 for five lessons. I had chosen such a package and booked my lessons at £60 for five lessons as I expected I won't need more lessons to pass the test for automatic driving license. It wasn't very difficult to find such school in Hitchin as I easily figured out a couple of driving schools near my locality by a few minutes of Internet research. I personally visited them later to finalize one after speaking to the instructors.
My expectations with automatic driving lessons
Although I had heard that you don't have to use clutch and gear in automatic cars while driving, I had not ever seen how the controls of such a vehicle looked like as our family car had manual transmission system with three pedals, i.e. clutch, break, and accelerator, and a gear besides other controls. Since I was planning to buy an automatic one, I chose to take lessons in automatic driving. In my first lesson, I was utterly surprised to see that automatic vehicle had only two pedals, one for acceleration, and the other for break. There was no clutch pedal. However, there was a gear-like handle at the place of gear as in manual car though I believed that there won't be any gear in an automatic car.
A bit about automatic driving controls
The instructor started to introduce me with the controls. First of all he told me about the pedals that I had already guessed. The right pedal controlled acceleration and the left was for break. Then he introduced me with the gear selector, the handle that I confused with the gear as in a manual car. The gear selector offers six selections, namely, P (park) that locks the transmission and is the place for handle when the car is stationary, R (reverse) for reverse gear, N (neutral) for neutral, which is same as that in manual car, D for driving forward, 2 for second gear, and 1 for first gear. The last two surprised me again, but the instructor immediately clarified that those selections are not used normally. They are there to override automatic gear selection in special situations such as going down a steep hill when automatic control will try to bring the car in a higher gear but it is appropriate to drive the car in lower gear for safety reasons.
He further instructed that when the car is stationary and you want to start the car, you will have to bring the gear selector to N. The car won't start if the selector is at any other position just like a manual car which only starts when the gear is in the neutral position. Once the car is started, you need to bring the gear selector to either D for forward drive or R for reverse drive.
Hurrah! I can drive automatic vehicle now
This is how my first day of automatic driving lessons begun in Hitchin and I soon started driving an automatic vehicle. I found automatic driving lessons very easy and comfortable. Finally I was successful in getting automatic driving license. Now I am authorized for automatic driving not only in Hitchin but anywhere in the United Kingdom.
My expectations with automatic driving lessons
Although I had heard that you don't have to use clutch and gear in automatic cars while driving, I had not ever seen how the controls of such a vehicle looked like as our family car had manual transmission system with three pedals, i.e. clutch, break, and accelerator, and a gear besides other controls. Since I was planning to buy an automatic one, I chose to take lessons in automatic driving. In my first lesson, I was utterly surprised to see that automatic vehicle had only two pedals, one for acceleration, and the other for break. There was no clutch pedal. However, there was a gear-like handle at the place of gear as in manual car though I believed that there won't be any gear in an automatic car.
A bit about automatic driving controls
The instructor started to introduce me with the controls. First of all he told me about the pedals that I had already guessed. The right pedal controlled acceleration and the left was for break. Then he introduced me with the gear selector, the handle that I confused with the gear as in a manual car. The gear selector offers six selections, namely, P (park) that locks the transmission and is the place for handle when the car is stationary, R (reverse) for reverse gear, N (neutral) for neutral, which is same as that in manual car, D for driving forward, 2 for second gear, and 1 for first gear. The last two surprised me again, but the instructor immediately clarified that those selections are not used normally. They are there to override automatic gear selection in special situations such as going down a steep hill when automatic control will try to bring the car in a higher gear but it is appropriate to drive the car in lower gear for safety reasons.
He further instructed that when the car is stationary and you want to start the car, you will have to bring the gear selector to N. The car won't start if the selector is at any other position just like a manual car which only starts when the gear is in the neutral position. Once the car is started, you need to bring the gear selector to either D for forward drive or R for reverse drive.
Hurrah! I can drive automatic vehicle now
This is how my first day of automatic driving lessons begun in Hitchin and I soon started driving an automatic vehicle. I found automatic driving lessons very easy and comfortable. Finally I was successful in getting automatic driving license. Now I am authorized for automatic driving not only in Hitchin but anywhere in the United Kingdom.