Which side is the brake and accelerator in an automatic transmission car?
2 Answers
In an automatic transmission car, the left pedal is the brake, and the right one is the accelerator. Automatic cars only have two pedals located below the driver's seat and the console, arranged from left to right as the brake pedal and the accelerator pedal, both controlled solely by the right foot. The gear shift is positioned in front of the center armrest on the right side, easily visible upon entering the car. Automatic transmission typically refers to the car's automatic gear-shifting mechanism, where the automatic transmission's control system selects the appropriate gear based on the engine's speed and load, replacing the driver's manual judgment and gear-shifting operations. A standard automatic transmission car has six gear positions, arranged from top to bottom as: P, R, N, D, S, L. The commonly used automatic gear positions are Park (P), Reverse (R), Neutral (N), and Drive (D).
When I first started learning to drive, I also kept mixing up the pedal positions. Later, my instructor taught me a trick: for the two pedals controlled by the right foot, the one on the left when your foot is naturally hanging is the brake, and the one on the right is the accelerator. This design is universal in cars worldwide. When driving an automatic, never let your left foot come down to help—that actually makes it easier to press the wrong pedal. I remember in my first few days on the road, I kept instinctively reaching for the clutch with my left foot and ended up stomping on the brake, almost embedding the seatbelt into my shoulder. With an automatic, just keep your right heel fixed on the floor and pivot your foot left and right. Press down on the left to slow the car, and press down on the right to accelerate. Developing the habit of using just one foot is crucial—otherwise, in an emergency, stomping with both feet can be extremely dangerous.
