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by pengaru 1726 days ago
An automatic transmission is effectively decoupled when the engine is off despite being left in drive. Without the engine spinning, there's no functioning torque converter. So the most ubiquitous ICE configuration, the auto with a torque converter, defaults to a neutral equivalent when the engine is off and the operator doesn't explicitly put the trans in park.
1 comments

Yeah, we can argue about the semantics of "by default", but the point is that the traditional drivetrain has more backup options than electric car, which must solely rely on (parking) brakes.