What is a semiautomatic transmission

You have to shift gears, manually. But you do not have a clutch pedal to depress.

It is a squishy designation. it is either a manual that shifts automatically, or an automatic that you shift manually.

I've driven both. l actually like them, l think they're cool. They can be tempermental, though.

Its basically an automatic gearbox, that works exactly like an automatic does.

However, if you feel like a bit of a play, you can select a semi-manual mode, that lets you decide when to change up a gear/down a gear, but there is no clutch to press or anything like that.