Welcome to the club! I’ve had my permit a while, and finished drivers ed as well. However, you can get 3 wring where you are? 3 wrong is a fail in MD, lucky! haha
Haha, in NC you can get 5/25 wrong. Not surprisingly we also have the worst drivers of any state on the East Coast.
In MN you can get 8 out of 40 wrong and still pass.
Tonight was my first time driving at night. I did better than I expected so that was good. Soon I’ll have to try driving on the freeway with all the crazy people trying to run me over. 
In Alberta you can get your permit when your 14. In Mississippi (I think) the laws on driving are also more lenient but i forget exactly what they are.
Try driving in populated places in California takes so long to get some where because of traffic and crazed drivers once it took me almost an hour to get to school which if there was no traffic would takes minutes.
UK brah checking in, can confirm that driving a ‘stick’ (as you call it) is a whole different ball game. I think 80% of learning how to drive over here is getting the hang of the gearing and finding the bite etc. With an automatic you just put your foot on the pedal and try not to crash into anything. 
I can’t believe some of you guys can start driving at 14-15 over there. I bet the roads are just a giant game of dodgems…
What’s the insurance like for someone your age over there? My first year’s insurance cost me nearly $4000, and I was 19 at the time. :-\
Modern dual clutch automatics are more efficient fuel economy wise then manuals. Soon there will be no reason to drive a manual except for fun.
15-16
Not saying it’s safe over here by any means, lol, but there is a bit of consent involved if a 15-16 year old who wants to start driving. there’s a lot of restrictions for a driving minor. Plus there’s a lot of parental involvement, so there has to be at least that level of trust. And as for insurance it’s on the parents. There’s not much to say about it than if you mess up once as a minor you lose your license until you’re 18 (depending on the severity)
Exactly, driving an auto is like point and shoot, vs a manual is actually driving.
I know that in NC you can take Drivers Ed at 14.5 and get your permit at 15. You have to have your permit for at least a year before taking your road test. A requirement that was added this last year is 60 hours of driving time with 10 of that being nighttime driving.
Yes, drivers down here in the South are absolutely terrible. Almost all of the better drivers moved from up North.
Not very many cars companies offer dual clutch transmissions/automatics yet. DCT vehicles are, in theory, more efficient and comfortable. I drive a DCT car. It is relatively fun with the lightning fast shifts and the farts under high rpm load. It’s one heck of a performer too. All of that add up to not very efficient lol. On the downside, DCT cars are not comfortable in traffic…they jerk a lot.
On the bright side, several manufacturers are offering those very high performing 8 speed automatics. They shift pretty fast, fuel efficient, not jerky, and convenient but at the cost of numbness.
Manual transmissions only exist now for the raw experience and fun. Otherwise, they’re beaten by their computer controlled alternatives.
Actually, they are not beaten in almost every category. In many cases, they are still more efficient, and always have more horsepower. You have greater control of the car and stay more alert while driving.
there is a state or two that allow permits at 14 at least unless the law hasn’t been recently changed.
In America perhaps, but over here manual is king. I only know 1 person who drives an automatic, everyone else I know drives manuals and it looks like it’ll continue that way for a long time.
So heres a scenario:
You’re cruising along the motorway stuck behind a muppet who’s only doing 60mph. The cars to your right are coming by thick and fast and they aren’t letting you in. You finally see a spot but you have to work fast:
Now in a manual you’d drop a gear, put your foot down and fly past. How can you do that in an automatic? What happens if you need to make a speedy move, is there a way of manually dropping down to a lower gear so you can make the most of dem high revs?
Automatics have a downshift function activated by pressing the accelerator. If you really insist you can pull an automatic down a gear in most cases, but usually not needed, unless you really like the drama. Otherwise, as in my case with a Volvo turbo, I just gently accelerate and effortlessly walk on passed the guy.
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^ Ya learn something new every day. Thank you for explaining kind sir. 
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I love manual transmission. I learned to drive, using a 1973 VW Beetle where you had to feather the gas and clutch or it would stall when you were slowing and stopped. Made hills scary for a noob. Took the test in that car as well. I really miss that bug, but it wouldn’t pass yearly smog test eventually. I learned to hate manual transmission when I commuted through LA every day. I mean, I hated driving cars at all through LA, but manual stop and go for 2+ hours on the way home every day loses its flavor pretty quickly. Which is why I traded my car for a motorcycle. Then, the best part of my day was the commute. Eventually, I got to the point where I could shift smoothly without the clutch. Never damaged the clutch either as I put ~75K miles I put on that single clutch, thanks to the training I got from that first car. My brother put and additional 15k miles on that motorcycle/clutch, but crashed it so who knows how long it would have gone.