More and more new cars in the Netherlands are automatic. Branche organization BOVAG Driving Schools therefore wants future drivers to follow their driving lessons and exams in a vending machine from now on. “Various car brands are not even building switch cars anymore,” says Arno Smits, chairman of BOVAG Driving Schools and owner of Driving School Smits in Oss, Monday in radio program Afslag Zuid.
Figures from BOVAG show that more than seventy percent of the new cars are a vending machine this year. “We are in the middle of a big change,” says Smits. “More and more people are getting rid of manual cars. We have to participate in that development as driving schools.”
He thinks we should take a good look at the future. “Different car brands don’t even build switch trucks anymore and you can also see them less and less in the rental industry.” That is why he wants young people to learn to ride a vending machine immediately.
More attention to traffic
One of the benefits of lessons in a vending machine is that you can keep your attention much better with traffic. “Pupils are very busy in a manual car during their driving lessons. They have to estimate situations and at the same time ensure that the clutch works, raise and switch. With a vending machine you only have to let go of the brake and give dosed gas. This ultimately requires fewer driving lessons and is therefore also cheaper.”
Anyone who wants a manual driving license after getting a machine driving license, can then take six to ten hours of driving lessons. “You will then receive a certificate from instructors with which you can also drive in a switching car,” says Smits.
In Germany a similar step was successfully implemented a few years ago, Smits knows. “As an industry, we also have to join in quickly. Otherwise, we will only drive around automatic cars, while students still have lessons in a switch truck that is no longer produced.”
Smits hopes that the government will soon decide on BOVAG’s plans. “Then driving school holders can take this into account when buying new cars. It would be a shame if they still purchased switch cars, while the switch will be switched completely to vending machines.”