maomao911

I've never tried this myself, driving the car mostly on flat roads, but am wondering, if you are rolling off while on a slope, how steep does it get before the auto-throttle can no longer cope with feeding in the throttle while you manually release the clutch? How do you guys deal with hill start?

MikeGT

I live up in some steep hill areas, and although I try to time the lights that leave me on a steep incline, I have been caught at a stop on some significant hills. After you become in tune with where the clutch begins to catch the gear, you can hold the break with your right foot as you let off the clutch. At the point where you know it's about to engage, ease off the brake and the car will go forward as you move your right foot to rest on the gas. At the same time as your foot moves to the gas, you will also hear the blip in the throttle. The moment you hear the blip, give it a small amount of gas and away she goes...
The auto throttle has never failed me yet.

reubenk

I have not encountered anything that it would not pull me up once you learn the technique - as above with right foot on brake, not releasing brake until you feel it pulling forward. however I don't think it will compensate if you let it start rolling back much.

mousecatcher

I never use the auto throttle. Learn how to feather the clutch. Tough to learn but once you get the hang of it you'll never waste time with the auto throttle again.

W. MITTY

Interesting view. Have you measured your clutch wear recently? I would be very curious to know what impact this has...

bbs993tt

I've been pretty surprised at how steep an incline the auto throttle works on from a dead stop. I've used techniques that others have mentioned and have never had it let me down. I'd suggest finding a vacant loading dock ramp or something to get the feel of exactly how it works on inclines in case you need it in real world situations.

Plastique999

+1
I live in the foothills and the auto throttle always gets the car rolling...takes a gentle left foot tho.

ByeEnzo

I live on an 8% hill. No problem going uphill after I back out of my driveway. Auto throttle works every time.

mousecatcher

I measured the clutch wear once, and it was 75% remaining. 10k miles.

I find it ironic that so many folks cheer, even praise, the analogue nature of the car, yet absolutely depend on the digital launch control. Come on people, get off the training wheels.

maomao911

but you can't not depend on it, can't you? The throttle/clutch interaction is part of the car's default functionality. It is engaged whenever you are rolling off in 1st gear. There is no switch to turn it off so you can manipulate the throttle/clutch on your own. The fun of driving this car, or any car, is at speed, cornering, accelerating, shifting, braking, all of these are totally the work of the driver without digital aids. Not sure what fun is there doing 1st gear starts.

DreamCarrera

I believe that once you press the throttle pedal(when pulling away from a stop) the auto throttle function is automatically disabled. This places the throttle control completely in the driver's hands.

Therein lies the problem, drivers press the gas pedal while pulling out thus disabling the auto throttle but if they do not manually feed in enough throttle themselves, the car will stall. However, OTOH, if you manually feed in too much throttle with the pedal while slipping the clutch(while pulling out) you can cause excessive clutch wear.