An automatic selector has four positions that matter and a handful that usually do not. P locks the transmission, R reverses, N disconnects the drive and D does everything else. Most of the mistakes learners make are not about choosing the wrong letter but about what their feet are doing while they choose it.
An automatic selector looks self-explanatory and mostly is. What is not obvious is when each position is genuinely the right one, and that is where habits form early and stick.
The Four Positions That Matter
| Position | What it does | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| P (Park) | Locks the transmission with a pin so the driven wheels cannot turn | Parked and leaving the car. Always with the parking brake on too |
| R (Reverse) | Drives the car backwards | Reversing, and only from a complete stop with the footbrake held |
| N (Neutral) | Disconnects the engine from the wheels. The car is free to roll | Rarely. Being towed, pushed, or told to by a garage or car wash |
| D (Drive) | Forward driving, with the car choosing its own gears | All normal forward driving, including in stationary traffic |
The important word in the P row is "pin". Park drops a small metal pawl into a toothed wheel inside the gearbox. It is a mechanical lock, not a brake, and it was never designed to hold a car on a slope by itself. So the parking brake goes on as well, every time, and before you select P rather than after.
The Highway Code treats that as a requirement rather than a suggestion: you must apply the handbrake before leaving the vehicle, firmly if you are parked on a hill.
What Is Happening Inside
You do not need this to drive the car, but it explains most of the habits further down the page.
A conventional automatic connects the engine to the gearbox through a torque converter, which is a fluid coupling rather than a solid one. Two bladed wheels sit facing each other in oil. The engine spins one, the oil is thrown across, and the second is dragged round after it.
Because the connection is fluid it can slip, which is why the engine can idle happily while the car sits still with nothing disengaged. It is also why the car creeps: at idle there is always a little drive crossing over, and a little is enough to move a car you have stopped holding.
Behind it sits a set of gears the car selects for itself, using oil pressure, a computer and clutches you never touch. Two other layouts are common and both count as automatics. A dual-clutch gearbox is closer to two manual gearboxes sharing a shaft with a computer working the clutches, which is why some feel faintly hesitant pulling away and creep less convincingly.
A continuously variable transmission runs a belt between two cones and has no fixed gears at all, which is why the engine note sometimes rises and stays there while the car gathers speed.
None of the three asks you to work a clutch pedal, so all three are automatics for licensing purposes, and all three behave the same way from the driver's seat: hold the car on the brake, select the letter you want, check you got it, then drive.
Creep, And Why It Exists
With the engine running and D selected, an automatic moves forward on its own as soon as you release the brake. This is creep, and it is a feature rather than a fault: a slow, controllable crawl for parking and stop-start traffic without touching the accelerator.
Creep is the most useful thing about learning in an automatic and the most common source of avoidable faults. Useful, because a manoeuvre at walking pace is controlled entirely with the brake, and brake pressure is far easier to judge than clutch bite. A source of faults, because the car moves whenever you stop holding it.
You will feel both halves of it in one journey. Crawling down Mare Street behind a bus, creep does the work: you never touch the accelerator, and the speed of the car is purely how hard you are pressing the brake.
Then you reach the junction at the end, look right for a gap, and the car quietly closes the two metres you left in front of you while you were not looking forward. Same feature, two outcomes, and the only difference is whether your right foot stayed where you put it.
P Or N At Traffic Lights?
Neither, usually. For an ordinary wait at a red light, stay in D with the footbrake held. That is what the car is designed for, it keeps you ready to move, and it is what your brake lights are already telling the driver behind.
Selecting N at every red is a habit imported from manual driving, where sitting in gear means holding the clutch down. In an automatic there is nothing to hold and nothing wearing out, so it buys you nothing and adds two small risks: the car is disconnected from the drive at a moment you might need it, and each shift is a chance to select the wrong thing.
There is a related habit that is worse, which is slipping into N while the car is still moving, usually on a downhill approach.
That is coasting, which the Highway Code defines as travelling in neutral or with the clutch pressed down and warns against because it reduces your control of the car: there is no engine braking, the car will pick up speed on a slope, and the brakes have to do all the work on their own.
In an automatic there is no reason to do it and every reason not to. Leave the car in D and let it slow itself.
Two exceptions. On a long wait, at a level crossing or roadworks lights where you will be stationary for minutes rather than seconds, applying the parking brake and taking your foot off is reasonable, and it stops you dazzling the car behind. And if you leave the driver's seat for any reason, P and the parking brake, without exception.
Hills, Without A Clutch
A hill start in an automatic is the footbrake and nothing else. Hold the car, check your mirrors and blind spot, then move your right foot across to the accelerator and go. Creep will hold most cars against a modest gradient during that transition, and on anything steeper you use the parking brake as you would in a manual: on while stopped, released as the car begins to pull.
What you must not do is hold the car on a hill by balancing the accelerator against gravity. It works, in the sense that the car stops rolling back, and it puts heat and wear into the transmission while leaving you almost no margin if something changes ahead. Use the brakes to hold a car and the accelerator to move it.
That matters locally. Chingford test routes take in Friday Hill and Kings Head Hill, where rolling back is one of the faults that most often ends a test. The Chingford test centre page has the rest of the route detail.
The Left Foot Rule
Your left foot does not touch a pedal. Not the brake, not anything. It sits flat on the floor or on the footrest to the left of the pedals for the entire drive, and there are three reasons worth understanding rather than just obeying.
- A left foot resting near the brake tends to apply light pressure without you noticing, which drags the brakes, confuses drivers behind and can be marked as a control fault.
- In an emergency, a driver with both feet over the pedals often presses both at once. The result is a car that neither stops properly nor moves.
- Bracing your left foot against the floor is what keeps your body stable under braking, so your right foot can do fine control instead of holding you in the seat.
The habit is easy to build in the first few hours and irritating to unpick later, which is one of the things a first lesson is for. That lesson is described in what happens in your first driving lesson.
The Other Letters On The Selector
Depending on the car you will see some of these. None are needed for the test or for ordinary driving.
- S or Sport: holds lower gears for longer and sharpens the response. Uses more fuel and does nothing useful in town.
- L, 1 or 2: restricts the box to low gears, for a long steep descent or towing, so the engine helps hold your speed.
- B: common in hybrids and electric cars, increasing the braking effect when you lift off.
- M, or a plus and minus gate: manual mode, letting you request gear changes with the lever or paddles. Still no clutch, so it is not manual driving.
- Winter or snow mode: sets off in a higher gear to reduce wheelspin on a slippery surface.
Learn where they are so that you do not select one by accident reaching for D, and otherwise leave them alone until you have passed.
Reverse, And The Rules Around It
Select R only from a complete stop with the footbrake held, never while the car is still rolling forward an inch, because the transmission takes the whole load of that direction change.
Wait for the display to show R before you release the brake, then run the entire manoeuvre on the footbrake and let creep do the moving. In most cars your right foot never touches the accelerator during a bay park, which is exactly why those manoeuvres suit an automatic.
The marks, though, are all in the observation: over your left shoulder through the rear window, all round before you move and again as you go, and stopping if anything comes near you. None of that is affected by the gearbox. The three manoeuvres are set out in the driving test manoeuvres explained.
The Habits Worth Building Now
Six small routines, all of which become automatic within a few lessons.
- Footbrake pressed before you move the selector, every time. Most cars will refuse to leave P otherwise.
- Come to a complete stop before selecting R or D. Changing direction while still rolling loads the transmission hard.
- Pause after selecting, and check the display actually shows the letter you wanted before you release the brake.
- Parking brake on before P when you park, so the car settles against the brake rather than the parking pawl.
- Right foot on one pedal at a time, moving between them rather than hovering over both.
- Hand off the selector once you are moving. It is not a place to rest an arm, and it keeps both hands available for steering.
None are examinable in themselves, but each prevents a situation that is. The parking routine in particular is what an examiner notices at the end of a test, once you have relaxed and stopped concentrating.
What This Frees You Up To Learn
Every minute you are not spending on a clutch is a minute available for the things that actually decide whether you pass: observation at junctions, mirror use before you change direction, and reading a multi-lane approach early enough to be in the right lane. Those are the faults at the top of the DVSA's top ten reasons for failing, and no gearbox helps with any of them.
That is the honest case for the two-pedal car. It does not make the test easier, as the pass rates in is it easier to pass in an automatic show. It moves your attention somewhere more useful. The beginner course starts with exactly the material on this page, and the route from provisional licence to test day is in learning to drive in East London.
The beginner course starts here, on a quiet residential street, with the selector and the pedals before anything else. £37 an hour, or £350 for a block of ten.
Start the beginner courseCommon questions about automatic controls
Should I put an automatic in neutral at traffic lights?
For an ordinary red light, no. Stay in D with the footbrake held. For a long wait at a level crossing or roadworks, applying the parking brake and taking your foot off is reasonable, and it stops your brake lights dazzling the car behind.
What is creep and is it a problem?
It is the car moving forward on its own in D when you release the brake. It is deliberate and it makes slow manoeuvres much easier. It becomes a problem only when you let the car edge forward at a junction while you are still looking for a gap.
Can I use my left foot for the brake in an automatic?
No. Keep it flat on the floor or on the footrest. Hovering it over the brake causes light unintended braking, and in an emergency it often leads to both pedals being pressed at once.
Do I need the parking brake if I select P?
Yes. Park is a metal pin locking the transmission, not a brake, and it was never meant to hold a car on a slope by itself. Apply the parking brake first, then select P.
What do S, B and the plus and minus symbols do?
S holds lower gears for a sharper response, B increases the slowing effect when you lift off and is common in hybrids and electric cars, and the plus and minus gate lets you request gear changes yourself. None of them are needed for the test.
Can I select reverse while the car is still rolling forward?
You should not, and most cars will resist it. Stop completely with the footbrake held, then select R. Changing direction while moving puts a heavy load through the transmission.
Reading about the selector is a start. Ten minutes in a stationary car with an instructor beside you does more, and it is where a first lesson begins anyway.
Start the beginner courseMore in Automatic driving
Published 1 September 2026. Prices and DVSA figures are checked when this page is revised. If anything here has changed, ring us and we will confirm it.