I'm the same way, but I'm also conflicted. I see the many advantages of an electric engine and an automatic transmission. However, whenever I am forced to drive even an ICE automatic, I feel so disconnected. I am willing to concede that this is likely a result of the fact that I first learned to drive in a manual. Do long time automatic drivers feel the same way when using things like adaptive cruise control or lane change assist? Obviously these things make driving easier and less stressful, but when I encounter them it just feels wrong. To me it isn't a that I believe as a human I can do these things better than a computer, but rather that giving up control also reduces my respect for the reality that I am directing a 2 ton hunk of metal in a river of similar potential death machines.

I imagine if I do look back on this comment in the future, it will be in the same vein as someone who derided the rise of email versus the tactile pleasure of a written letter. All the advantages of email didn't matter to those who loved writing letters at the time.

I insist on a manual, and have declined to buy cars I otherwise liked because they didn't make a manual transmission model.

I don't have a lot of experience with fully electric cars, but I've always read that the torque on electric cars makes the transmission unnecessary.

Is that not so? Have you had a bad experience?