Cephalopods (Octopuses, squid, cuttlefish etc.) leave chameleons for dead in this, they can change colour so fast they can send waves of colour across their bodies and besides colour changes they also change the texture to help blend in.And before anyone gets pedantic, the plural of Octopus is Octopuses or Octopodes – The name derives from Greek so the plural form is S, if it were derived from Latin then the plural form would have been I
Most autos allow that control. The old torque converter automatics are effectively dead now. My car, UK spec 2014 BMW is not even available with a manual but the gearbox it has is still a cogs and gears ’box but normally controlled by the car. When you want control yourself you use either the paddles behind the steering wheel or the gear level which works very well. A couple of weeks ago I was driving a lot in the mountains of North Wales and regularly switching to manual override to get the engine braking going down hill.
The reason for the trend is economy. The car can pick the most economical gear for a given situation far better than the majority of drivers, add in the trend of hybrid and electric cars which effectively have to have an autobox and you can see why we are going that way.
Personally I really like my DCT best of both worlds gearbox and doubt I would go back for a family car, and this comes from a petrol head who has owned Porsches, Lotus’s and 1000cc plus bikes
@Jayalexander You need to check your facts – UK spends 2.2% gdp and France spends 2.1% and neither country imports significant amounts of oil or gas from Russia and are both actively working to remove that which they do
Snoopy is right, the cat does not know what a snowflake looks like, snowflakes have six sections not the eight he carved into the dog house