Ergonomics in other TLs

HueyLong

Banned
You know, in Tony Jones' TLs, there's always that disclaimer about automobiles' controls. Basically, that they are unrecognizable to people from OTL.

Well, to what extent would that be true? Is there an ergonomic "evolution" which eventually demands something recognizable and similar to OTL?
 
I would say in some regards yes. All cultures that develop the concept of sitting on something develop the platonic 'chair'. Doors are alwas designed broadly the same way - openings a little taller than the tallest gus expected to walk through, wide enough to accommnodate everything normally passed through them, with a 'handle' at hand height) because it's the easiest way to do it. All writing tools I have ever seen gravitate towards pen shape over time, and where you have metal, you have 'knife'.

But car controls are so strongly technologically conditioned that there really is no ergonomic reason why they should look the way they do. I had a fun ten mintes once talking with a couple fellow roleplayers about how many different practical schemes *with a credible evolutionary path* (ie no joystick driving or touchscreen) we could come up with. My favourite one was a vertical steering column with an accelerator switch on the right and other switches on the left, the brakes being operated with a separate handle on the left and the gears shifted via pedals.
 
Early cars...

Many early cars had controls very different from each other, and from today's gas eaters. The throttle was often used by hand, sometimes you shifted with your feet. On the self starting model T, the starter was pressed with the foot.
So, even in OTL, machines had completely different controls.
 
As I recall I started the whole thing because a friend of mine saw a very old car in a museum in Cuba (I think) which had controls like a horse-drawn carriage, despite having an engine instead of horses. And from that I concluded that the current car control layout is by no means inevitable.

One thought I quite like but haven't found a use for yet is cars with controls derived from small boats, so you would steer with a tiller with hand levers for the other controls. And maybe red and green navigation lights... :cool:
 
I can imagine it's not necessarily the simplest design that wins, but the most widely adopted.

Which off the top of my head probably translates as the cheapest, and so probably the first to be mass-produced. Basically no-one would want to have to re-learn to drive when changing car, so if one company gains dominance, to have a chance the other companies will have to be compatible with them. Thus the dominant company's controls will become the de facto standard even if they're not the simplest/best...
 
Well isn't that essentially the reason that qwerty keyboards are more or less standard? People have come up with other designs which may be more ergonomic, but very few people are going to take the time to re-learn how to type at any speed. Its thus easier to just maintain the old system unless you can demonstrate that another offers a significant advantage.
 
But car controls are so strongly technologically conditioned that there really is no ergonomic reason why they should look the way they do. I had a fun ten mintes once talking with a couple fellow roleplayers about how many different practical schemes *with a credible evolutionary path* (ie no joystick driving or touchscreen) we could come up with. My favourite one was a vertical steering column with an accelerator switch on the right and other switches on the left, the brakes being operated with a separate handle on the left and the gears shifted via pedals.

You only have to see the cars adapted for handicapped drivers to see how differently the controls could have developed.
 
Besides which, while the major items like steering wheels and accelerator/brake/clutch are always in the same place, and there is dashboard that contains a fuel gauge and speedometer; still many other controls seem to be located at random.

Any time I rent a car, I have to spend several minutes trying to find things like headlights, and windshield wipers. Gearshifts are usually in one of a few places (between the front seats or on the steering column), but on manual transmission vehicles, the location of "reverse" can be ...interesting to find.

So, yes, I think that cars could end up looking very different.

By the way, some early cars DID have a tiller IIRC
 
I would say in some regards yes. All cultures that develop the concept of sitting on something develop the platonic 'chair'. .

Yes, but did they use them? My impression is that in various cultures - the Japanese, the Turks - even people who could easily afford furniture didn't use chairs much but rather used mats, cushions, padded benches, etc.

(And having visited the ruins of a couple of Pueblos, easy-to-walk-through doors aren't necessarily a standard. But I suppose that's an issue re the level of physical safety in a society).

Bruce
 
As I recall I started the whole thing because a friend of mine saw a very old car in a museum in Cuba (I think) which had controls like a horse-drawn carriage, despite having an engine instead of horses. And from that I concluded that the current car control layout is by no means inevitable.

One thought I quite like but haven't found a use for yet is cars with controls derived from small boats, so you would steer with a tiller with hand levers for the other controls. And maybe red and green navigation lights... :cool:

Tillers, rather than steering wheels, were in common use until 1903-1904. Indeed, it was somewhat remarkable that Autocar (in later years, a prominent truck manufacturer) passenger vehicles used a tiller as late as 1906.

Red and green side marker lights were not unknown for automotive applications: I've seen a World War I vintage Pierce-Arrow outfitted as described.

Oh, by the way: starter buttons on the floor (near the accelerator) were common on US vehicles in the later 1940s/early 1950s. On the other hand, pre-war US vehicles had starter pushbuttons on the dashboard.
 
By a strange coincidence, the Independent road tested the Ford Model T this weekend and it's controls would certainly qualify as different:

The T is a remarkably docile machine and a doddle to drive, once you grasp its bizarre pedal arrangement. The left pedal is lowered to engage first gear and raised to select second; neutral lies in between. The centre pedal selects reverse and the right-hand pedal brakes the car. The throttle is operated via a lever mounted on the steering wheel – an arrangement that works so well that it seems a shame that it was abandoned.

Given the popularity of the Model T I'm not sure why this arrangement of controls didn't become the standard...
 
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