Why does your car sometimes move forward after taking your foot off the brake and sometimes not?
In: Engineering
Assuming you’re in an automatic transmission, the engine and wheels aren’t completely disconnected when you apply your brake – there’s a mechanism that allows the engine to continue without stalling from the wheels not turning.
That said, when you release the brake, the wheels will naturally attempt to roll forward at engine idle speeds. However, if you’re facing uphill at all, it can stop the car from rolling forward.
If you were to repeat this in the same car on level ground over and over again, it should pretty much always start moving forward when you release the brake.
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