

You don’t even need to have someone else running their character. Just say that the character is busy/drunk/sick whatever match their role-play. Or simply have an agreement with the PC that despite being unrealistic for the sake of the game, nobody will wonder why a character can be absent in the middle of space or a dungeon without any justification.
I understand that in game with a big focus on party balance/tactic it may-be different but this kind of the game is the exception not hte norm
In many places, passing the test on an automatic would give you a licence restricted to automatic only (and the need for some more hours to learn how to drive a manual). While it’s not that easy to switch from manual to automatic, it’s definitely easier, so get a licence on a regular car first and if you have the opportunity to drive an automatic you’ll find out by yourself in a couple of hours how it works