Has anyone modded their car, so that u could drive it with a gamepad, so I mean the steering and throttle are connected to the thumbsticks ?
I have a bad back, and sometimes it's pretty hard to move my leg/foot when driving an automatic, if it was a standard, I'd need gear shift paddles on the steering wheel, as I could not use both legs/feet in a comfortable way.
So for that matter, has any car maker, used a gamepad instead of steering wheel/pedals ? It works pretty good in video games, and I'm sure my thumbs are far quicker than my feet
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OK, so…
You've got your thumbs on the analog sticks and you're driving along, relaxed. You hit a pothole or speed bump. What happens to the analog sticks?
My guess is they go all over the place. And thus, so does your car.
If you had been gripping the controller tightly, you might be able to retain the relative position of thumbs to analog sticks. But that level of tight grip is unsustainable.
The large "throw" of standard automotive controls makes it unlikely for small movements to destabilize the car. You have to yank the wheel far and fast to do that. A game controller is not so forgiving.
Hand controls on cars are a concession made for people with no alternative, and I assume they're subject to significant regulation.
As for the reaction speed of your thumbs being "far quicker" than your feet: don't be so sure. Your feet are designed to make ongoing micro-corrections as you stand, walk, etc. As you probably know, once you are an experienced driver, your feet react without any conscious thought. (As in, you feel you need more speed and your feet just do it.) I have no doubt one reaches equivalent automatism with hand controls, I just doubt that feet are inherently slower.
(Related tangent: people think of their feet as being way less sensitive than their hands, but oh, how untrue that is! They're extraordinarily sensitive. Think about how we can feel a large grain of sand in a shoe. And that's despite the thickness of the skin, and often callouses!)