why do all cars slightly move forward when your foot is on neither the gas nor the break?
In: Engineering
>break
**B** **R** **A** **K** **E**
“break” is smashing something into tiny pieces.
This doesn’t happen with “all cars”. This only happens “naturally” with automatic transmission vehicles that use a torque converter… I guess the ELI5 explanation is that it “leaks” a little bit of power from the idling motor to the wheels, so the car will be pushed forward slightly when set to “Drive” as long as the engine is running.
Manual transmission vehicles don’t do this. The engine will stall if you try to come to a complete stop with the clutch engaged (or you’ll damage the clutch). If you disengage the clutch it’s like being in neutral in an AT vehicle, and it won’t creep forwards.
Electric cars and vehicles with fancy things like a CVT (continuously-variable transmission) normally wouldn’t do this… but because people are used to it with regular automatic transmissions (and it can be helpful for parking) they actually fake this behavior and deliberately transmit a small amount of power to the wheels when you take your foot off the brake. IIRC in some electric cars you can toggle this behavior on and off.
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