| an automotive transmission requiring either very little or no manual shifting of gears. |
automatic transmission
arrangement of gears, brakes, clutches, a fluid drive, and governing devices that automatically changes the speed ratio between the engine and the wheels of an automobile. Since its introduction in 1939, the fully automatic transmission has become optional or standard equipment on most passenger cars. When the transmission is in the drive position, the driver has only to depress the accelerator pedal, and as the car gathers speed the transmission will shift automatically through its entire forward range of gears from low to high (ratios of the speeds of drive shaft and engine shaft) until the two shafts are directly connected through the oil in the fluid drive, which may be either a two-element fluid coupling or a three-element torque converter. When the car loses speed the transmission automatically shifts back from high to low gear.
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