CNET believes modern cars with automatic transmissions are complicated and that's why they had Brian Cooley go make a "how to" video about driving a "modern automatic transmission." It's so poorly done you may actually forget how to drive an automatic transmission after using it.
Some cars now use rotary dials or weird electric wands to select gears which, we'll admit, can be initially confusing to those who aren't acclimated to anything but a PRNDL with a large stick coming out of it. That's not covered here.
Perplexingly, Cooley chooses a Mazda 3 with a six-speed automatic and talks about using the steering wheel paddles, sport modes and bilateral paddles on Porsches.
Oh, and manual gear selection is good for getting those "granular gears," Cooley says. Don't you only use granular when talking about different types of sugar?
What he also doesn't really go over is that you're going to leave the car in D, for drive, most of the time unless you're going around a track or an auto journalist. The whole P-R-N-D business? That's pretty much as it's been for roughly the last 50 years.
So if you're someone with a modern automatic transmission and confused about how to drive with it, here's a tip: don't watch this video.
Thanks for the tip, Travis!