Car blinker system (US)

[CatalinaWOW]

Classic case of not taking all human factors into account.  It is further accentuated in my case since from my sitting position I can't normally see the visual indicators either. 

How does that work? They are usually in the centre of the dashboard and if you can't see the dashboard something's wrong with your sitting position.

Centre of the dash? Maybe yes, in a Mini or in the old dart, but cars from NA and Japan put most everything but the climate controls in one big molded plastic "pod" just behind the steering wheel. Maybe it's so the dealers can charge us more for repair..

That is the dashboard. The part that faces the driver. I'm not talking about those cars who have their instrument pods above the centre console but with the instrument panel behind the wheel. If you can't that then you have chosen a wrong seating position or a really really unsuitable car. So for someone to go "Oh, I never see that." ... That's somewhat worrisome.

Try being over 2 meters tall.  Steering wheel has to be tilted up to clear legs.  Upper rim of steering wheel blocks much of the dash.  I actually use a GPS unit sitting on top of dash to monitor speed.  It is more accurate and easier for me to see than the speedometer. 

Of far greater concern than not being able to easily see the turn signal indicator lights is that the rear view mirror generally blocks vision out the right front quadrant of the car (LH drive here in the US).  I have trained myself to crane my head around frequently to cover this blind spot, but it is less than optimal.

I understand that I am way out on the tail of the distribution, so don't expect to have my every foible catered to, but I am sure that there are a great many people of various sizes and shapes that find one or more instruments obscured by the steering wheel, the instrument shade or other things.  Or view of the road in one or more directions.  It is a tough job to engineer for an operator who may vary from 1.4- meters to 2.0+ meters, with variations on how that height is distributed between legs and torso.  Variations in arm length and weight from something like 40 kg up to well over 300 kg.  All on a tight budget and while meeting crash test safety requirements. I am surprised they do as well as they do.

[Delta]

Try being over 2 meters tall.  Steering wheel has to be tilted up to clear legs.  Upper rim of steering wheel blocks much of the dash.

 

[NottheDan]

Try being over 2 meters tall.  Steering wheel has to be tilted up to clear legs.  Upper rim of steering wheel blocks much of the dash.

 ;Dt

I was more reminded of Bob Parr.

[Brumby]

I was thinking of Jeremy Clarkson...

[SeanB]

Reminds me of my high school English teacher, who hod to stoop to get through a standard doorway as he was 1.9m tall. He drove an original Mini, and simply removed the front seat and used the rear one, and for comfort opened the sunroof.

But, between him and the other english teacher, who drove a Pallas, they fitted an entire class of the boarders into those 2 vehicles to go to an outing a few times.  Made sardine cans look roomy, and they had to have 3 people to change gear and use indicators, but it worked. Between the 2 classes there were 11 boarders.

[Brumby]

Reminds me of my high school English teacher, who hod to stoop to get through a standard doorway as he was 1.9m tall. He drove an original Mini, and simply removed the front seat and used the rear one, and for comfort opened the sunroof.

.... like officer Hightower:

[Brumby]

Try being over 2 meters tall.

(I hope I haven't offended.)

[SeanB]

My mother drove a VW beetle for years, and she was very short. To solve the problem of the feet not meeting the pedals, my dad simply moved the seat mounts forward around 20cm, using a block of wood and new holes ( with appropriate steel bracing under the pan to spread the load to the chassis) for the seat mounts, so he could also drive the car by moving the seat all the way back. then, to see out the windscreen, mom simply used a big firm foam cushion to lift her above the steering wheel, while still touching the pedals.

Later on she changed to a Renault 5, and this car suited her perfectly, even if she did drive for over a year on a single tank of fuel, and it had a rattle my dad could never locate, even after he had the entire interior and dashboard of the car, aside from the crate he was sitting on to drive, sitting in the garage. that did annoy him, as he was an automotive engineer, and should have been able to find such a small thing. Eventually he took it as the actual metalwork simply having a resonance at certain speeds.

[CatalinaWOW]

I have taken no offense at any of this.  I actually drive a pretty large vehicle, a Chevy Tahoe, which still is in some ways not large enough.  Strangely there have been a few vehicles that do fit, but they have been outside my financial reach.  The 1950s Studebaker Hawk.  The 1970s Jensen Interceptor III.  And the current Tesla Model X.