A QUARTER of driving tests are now being taken in a car with an automatic transmission, suggesting that the reign of the manual gearbox may soon be over.
Last year, 1.8 million practical driving tests were conducted across England, Scotland and Wales. Of these, 470,000 were automatic tests, which only qualify drivers who pass to get behind the wheel of vehicles with two pedals, rather than three.
This is a slight bump over the previous year, in which more tests were taken (1.9 million) but fewer automatic tests were conducted (455,000), representing just 23 per cent of the total examinations. A decade ago, only seven per cent of practical driving exams were taken in automatic cars. In fact, the AA estimates that one in three tests could be automatic by…
