I always wondered why paddle shifters aren't an option?

To a degree they do. At least the Cascadias I know do. You have to put the shifter into manual mode. Push the arm forward to downshift and toward you to up shift. Depending on the year Cascadia.

 

My SS Camaro has paddle shifters

 

Because it's a bad idea. The more you make trucks drive and ride Ike a car, the more people will drive them like a car. Tailgating, cutting people off, will get worse the more you make a truck like a car.

 

If companies wanted drivers to shift gears they would spec a stick.. most drivers nowadays can’t shift half as good as a auto..

 

Don't Volvo's have auto transmissions that the driver can also shift like a stick shift?
I read where some companies were having that disabled because of increased fuel consumption and drivers not learning how to manual shift.

 

Cascadia's keep it usable for being able to better control the truck on graded hills. On the other side of that though they programmed in a safety feature for the drive line that if it exceeds X rpms for too long or too high that could damage the driveline then the computer kicks it back into auto.

 

I don't think I could ever trust an auto in a truck.

 

I have driven about 500,000 miles with an auto, and never had a problem. The only thing I did not like was after some got a lot of miles, they would grab in starting out, but once you were moving it was fine. Exception being KW and Pete at YRC, they would not start smooth, problem with computer program I was told.

 

NHTSA actually did extensive research on this a couple of years ago.

Factory and closed course testing with engineers produced promising results, both in ergonomics and functionality. However, real world testing proved somewhat problematic due to several fatal crashes when it was found that the participating Bakersfield,CA and Chicago,IL test drivers discovered a mysterious stick attached to the steering wheel column.

The problem occurred when drivers were startled and then fixated upon the green flashing arrows that appeared on the instrument cluster, leading to long periods of inattention with their feet on the dash, resulting in the collisions.

Further research and development was thus discontinued.