What's interesting to me is the development of the auto trans from early days of manual + fluid coupling to today with electronic controls. Thinking about how to apply a series of clutches in the best manner, how to physically place them in the transmission for best packaging... there's a *lot* of engineering involved even when the result isn't a good trans.
The holy grail has been for years a completely dry automatic and it may be coming in the form of manual transmissions with computer actuated clutch and gearshift. This is already done in Europe and on some heavy trucks here although the "row your own" guys can't stand them. But with the CAFE numbers heading up, the manual wins the game in terms of overall efficiency.
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