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Drivers who pass their road test in an automatic vehicle should be allowed to operate a manual transmission car after completing a one-hour conversion session, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).
Edmund King, president of the AAA’s driving policy division, told reporters that requiring motorists to wait months for a manual test slot “makes no sense,” especially since most “quickly develop solid road skills” after a brief guided practice.
Currently, in several U.S. states – including California, New York, and Texas – a driver who takes the licensing exam in an automatic car receives a license restricted to automatic vehicles. To legally drive a manual car – whether for work, renting a vehicle, or borrowing a friend’s truck – they must pass a separate test in a stick-shift vehicle.
But state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) data show that the average wait time for a manual transmission test in May 2025 was nearly 22 weeks, compared to roughly five weeks in February 2020 before the pandemic. In states like California, the backlog for manual tests has grown even longer because fewer examiners are trained to administer them.
“The DMV is struggling to clear the current test backlog, and forcing manual-only testers to endure months of waiting hurts both mobility and the used-car market,” said King.
The proportion of learner drivers taking automatic-only road tests across the United States has hit a record high. According to the Federal Highway Administration, 39.4% of all driving tests conducted in the 2024 fiscal year were in an automatic-only vehicle, up from about 4% in 2007/08. In some states, the number exceeds 50%.
The surge in electric vehicle sales is a major factor. EVs, which now account for over 8% of new U.S. car registrations (up from 2% in 2020), do not have a conventional gearbox. Learners who train in an EV must take an automatic test, and many never return to learn manual.
Meanwhile, manual transmission cars are becoming rare. Only 1.2% of new vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2024 had a manual gearbox, according to IHS Markit. However, an estimated 12 million manual cars are still on American roads, and many rental companies, delivery services, and agricultural firms require manual driving ability.
AAA’s proposed solution: a one-hour conversion session, supervised by a certified instructor, that covers clutch control, hill starts
