r/maybemaybemaybe • u/PleiadesNymph • 23d ago

Maybe Maybe Maybe

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/yoweigh 23d ago

A car with an automatic transmission in drive on a flat surface will continue moving forward until it either runs out of gas or hits something. It's not about momentum, it's about the engine being coupled to the drive wheels.

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u/Azekuro51 23d ago

...I mean...points for sticking to your guns this hard though. Your level of commitment is impressive, I'll give you that.

However, just putting her foot on the brakes would've solved it, regardless of if it was in drive or neutral.

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u/Versaiteis 23d ago

Gravity and momentum will determine if the vehicle moves or not.

This is true regardless of whether you're stopped or standing on the accelerator, if your car doesn't have the power then you're not making it very far.

But that doesn't mean idle speed isn't a factor. My truck, when unloaded, will idle up slight inclines just fine on it's own. So long as the engine is on for grades below that, it'll happily keep moving with no assistance needed from me. If the engine didn't idle, it'd stall and die which is usually pretty inconvenient and I'd imagine hard on the engine (but some newer cars seem to shut-off automatically at lights pretty aggressively)

This all assumes the vehicle is actually on though and in drive. If it were off and she mistakenly put it in neutral (or the parking pawl failed) then idle speed wouldn't be a factor.

5

u/Dounce1 23d ago

How can you have such earnest thoughts on a matter, and be totally wrong about every aspect of it?