I would say the 'author' of the article needs to do a little more research. I have known several professional drivers with well over one MILLION accident-free miles. Guess what, 97%+ of all over-the-road trucks have a manual transmission. In fact, these Roadranger transmissions are unsynchronized and unless they are shifted correctly, they will not go into gear. When I drove over-the-road, once I got used to the truck, it didn't seem like I had to even think about what gear I was in--it just happened naturally.
I have read about the new automatically shifted manual trannys for new big trucks. I am a little unsure if I like this idea. I realize truck drivers are becoming harder to find every day and some people are intimidated by a manual transmission with at least 9 gears. I think that may be a good thing because the last thing I want on the road is an 80,000 lb. truck headed toward me on the road being driven by someone who thinks it handles like a car. Call the manual transmission a tool for weeding out the wanna-be's.
