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I drive most of the time in L, but when I'm on the freeway I often switch into D to try to do some coasting. (Not trying to restart the hypermiling discussion here, but see any other thread on this forum for a discussion of coasting... ) Sometimes I forget that I'm in D, and let's say traffic slows down suddenly, I remove my foot from the pedal, and there's like a half a second where I have expected the car to slow down (because I am used to L) and it doesn't (because I'm actually in D). It can be a moment of fear actually before I realize I have to hit the brake pedal.
Now, my braking instinct does ultimately kick in, but my point is that I find it psychologically complicated to keep two modes of my reflexes active at once, and sometimes this fact seems dangerous. Anyone else experience this? I realize the D or L is on the dash, but I'm generally not looking down in that corner when I'm driving. Maybe it would help to have a more obvious indication of this, like if the ring around the speedometer changed color or something to remind me which mode I'm in.
Now, my braking instinct does ultimately kick in, but my point is that I find it psychologically complicated to keep two modes of my reflexes active at once, and sometimes this fact seems dangerous. Anyone else experience this? I realize the D or L is on the dash, but I'm generally not looking down in that corner when I'm driving. Maybe it would help to have a more obvious indication of this, like if the ring around the speedometer changed color or something to remind me which mode I'm in.