"NY" wrote in message
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"Rod Speed" wrote in message
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"Andy Burns" wrote in message
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Dave Plowman wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

What I don't want to do is train my left foot to do braking, too much
potential for ****-up.

In the same way that my fingers remember all my complex passwords, but
my brain doesn't, my feet know how to do emergency braking, without any
input from my brain .. ok clearly not ... but that's how it feels.

Oddly, when most first try it, they find they start off braking too
hard.

Yes, whenever I've tried left foot braking, I've made friends with the
windscreen.

Because with a clutch you slap it down and release gently - rather the
reverse of braking.

I don't see what's to gain by left-foot breaking, once you have hold
assist available?

Why is hold assist even necessary?

No one said it was necessary, its just convenient, like with an
auto, cruise control, climate control, central locking etc etc etc.

It's simple a sop to the people who can't coordinate releasing the
handbrake with operating the accelerator (and maybe clutch) pedal.

Its not a sop, its a convenience, like with an auto, cruise
control, climate control, central locking etc etc etc.

Works better for tight parking situations and for backing up to the
trailer hitch, you dont have to move your feet from one pedal to another
particularly with a decent reversing camera which lets you see the
trailer hitch and towbar.

Yes I think we are all agreed that because automatics only have an
accelerator and a brake to regulate speed, whereas manuals also have a
clutch that can be slipped, *low-speed* *precise* movement is more easily
achieved with left-foot braking in an automatic.

But is there any advantage in using the left foot to brake in normal
driving?

Yes, you dont have to move the right foot back
to the accelerator when you have finished braking.

In spades with inching in a traffic jam.

Or is it just a case of doing it because you can, rather than for any
better reason.

Nope.

I have no problem using the same foot for brake and accelerator in a
manual, so I don't see the benefit of using different feet in an
automatic.

That gives you finer control in some situations
like inching in traffic jams and when stacked
up waiting to turn right thru traffic coming
the other way when that junction isnt light
controlled and when entering a roundabout.

Maybe there's something explanation that I'm missing...

See above.

OK, so rally drivers resort to heel-and-toe operating the brake and
accelerator at the same time, but I'm thinking of normal driving where you
brake before the hazard and then accelerate out of it, and so don't need
to operate both pedals simultaneously.

That isnt the only situation where you use the brakes with normal
driving.

Given that every automatic I've ever seen, going back to the mid sixties
(*), has an extra-wide footbrake pedal, the concept of left-foot braking
is something that has been around for a long time with automatics. So in
the early days of automatics, someone perceived that there was a benefit
of allowing it. I'm trying to work out what that reason was and still is.

See above.

(*) And probably a lot longer, but I can't comment on cars that were
around before I was born and before the earliest that I can remember ;-)

Tad radical...