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If there was ever an argument that could be filed under "Antics With Semantics", the manually shifted automatic vs automatically shifted manual is it.
To my perhaps overly-simple mind, a transmission that shifts by itself, without action on the part of the driver, is an automatic transmission, regardless of whether the engineering solution to the problem was to use a torque converter or a bunch of hydraulics hung on the side of a standard gearbox.
Maybe calling them all "automatic shift(able) transmission" would suit everybody's sensibilities.
F1 would have been using fully automatic shift transmissions for the past 15 years if a few of the drivers, notably Ayrton Senna, hadn't ********************ed their heads off about needing to at least wiggle their fingers to effect a gear change, thus justifying their inflated salaries.
I, too, yearn for the days when a driver could "miss a shift" and blow the engine to smithereens, but I don't think we're going to get there anymore.
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