# Technological Conventions
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [November 11, 2004, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161 "2004-11-11T05:39:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2004, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/1 "2004-11-11T05:39:30Z")
[This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=285762) got me to thinking about something I’d read in _Car & Driver_ years ago. They were reviewing the new McLaren sports car, which has the driver seated in the center of the vehicle, instead of at either right or left side of the car as is the case with all other cars, and they said, “The first thing you think is, ‘Why aren’t all cars built this way?’” There’s _no_ technological reason why this isn’t done (Preston Tucker’s original concept for his car was going to have this, BTW), just strictly convention. IOW, “We do it this way because we’ve always done it this way.” What other things out there are done that way? (Putting this in IMHO, since there’s likely to be some disagreement over some of these things.)
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2004, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/2 "2004-11-11T06:18:08Z")
For one, how can you have a passenger seat if the driver’s seat is in the middle?
Secondly, I would much rather be towards the center of the road than the center of my lane. That way I have a better view of oncoming traffic and the road as a whole.
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### Author:  [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2004, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/3 "2004-11-11T06:22:52Z")
Does the thing have a passenger seat? If so, where? Placing the driver on one side or the other allows the car to hold more people…unless of course the car is so wide as to have passenger seats on both sides. I suppose you could do this if you just wanted a one-person vehicle, but if you’re so sure you’ll never need to haul more than yourself, hell, just get a motorcycle; they’re cheaper.
IOW, I’d bet dollars to donuts that the main reason this isn’t done is practical rather than technological. I can think of another big disadvantage, too: anything that requires you to pull up and lean out the window (drive-thru, mailbox, ATM, video rental dropbox, etc.) is going to be a royal pain in the ass, unless the car is so narrow that a center seat is still right next to the window.
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### Author:  [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2004, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/4 "2004-11-11T06:36:36Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> Secondly, I would much rather be towards the center of the road than the center of my lane. That way I have a better view of oncoming traffic and the road as a whole.
True for a single-lane road, but what if you were on a dual carriage-way? Being in the inside lane places you further from the centre of the road, if you’re seated on the right-hand side of the vehicle. You’d be closer to the centre of the road if you sat in the middle of the car.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2004, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/5 "2004-11-11T08:42:46Z")
Not that it matters, but our (British-made) fire trucks here have center driver positions.
I would point out it is legal in the US to have right-hand drive car. (Subaru used to sell them to rural mail delivery people.) In the UK you can have a left-hand drive car. (Years ago you had to have a warning sign on the back.)
So why not a center-hand driver’s seat?
(Even better, lets go for a center-hand gas cap.)
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2004, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/6 "2004-11-11T10:58:11Z")
> [@Jervoise](#):
>
> True for a single-lane road, but what if you were on a dual carriage-way? Being in the inside lane places you further from the centre of the road, if you’re seated on the right-hand side of the vehicle. You’d be closer to the centre of the road if you sat in the middle of the car.
It would be very unlikely for me to be seated on the right-hand side of a vehicle, unless I was driving in the UK. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2004, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/7 "2004-11-11T11:42:04Z")
There used to be a French sports-car manufacturer - Matra, I think it was - which had a model with a central front seat, with a passenger seat on either side. For taking your wife and mistress away on a dirty weekend, presumably.
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2004, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/8 "2004-11-11T19:47:16Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Even better, lets go for a center-hand gas cap.
Got one! My 1985 Buick LeSabre (AKA The Big Comfy Couch) has a center mounted gas cap. It’s right behind the spring mounted license plate frame.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/9 "2004-11-11T19:55:23Z")
> [@Doctor Jackson](#):
>
> Got one! My 1985 Buick LeSabre (AKA The Big Comfy Couch) has a center mounted gas cap. It’s right behind the spring mounted license plate frame.
I believe my wife’s old Plymouth Duster had a center cap also. I wish they brought them back, since it would give a greater choice of gas pumps to use.
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### Author:  [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/10 "2004-11-11T20:26:03Z")
Of course, a car could have a gas cap on BOTH SIDES!!!
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### Author:  [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2004, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/11 "2004-11-11T20:57:23Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> It would be very unlikely for me to be seated on the right-hand side of a vehicle, unless I was driving in the UK. 🙂
Oops, substitute RHS for LHS.
_Driving in the inside lane places you further from the centre of the road, if you’re seated on the LEFT-hand side of the vehicle. You’d be closer to the centre of the road if you sat in the middle of the car._
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### Author:  [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2004, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/12 "2004-11-11T20:58:34Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#):
>
> Of course, a car could have a gas cap on BOTH SIDES!!!
Almost certain that some models of Jaguar are produced that way. My '77 Plymouth had a center cap behind a flipper door that lived between the taillights. Weren’t there a few years of Corvette that had the filler dead center, right behind the rear window?
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2004, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/13 "2004-11-11T21:42:11Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> For one, how can you have a passenger seat if the driver’s seat is in the middle?
>
> Secondly, I would much rather be towards the center of the road than the center of my lane. That way I have a better view of oncoming traffic and the road as a whole.
For the McLaren, there’s no passenger seat, sort of. Because of US airbag laws, they strip them out of the car before they ship them to the US, then they sell them as an “optional accessory” that the owner has to install himself. When Tucker originally design his car, of course, there were no airbags, so that wasn’t an issue. The seating arrangement was triangular, with the driver’s seat placed well forward of the passenger seats, and slightly farther forward in the car than a conventional driver’s seat. This gave the driver a panoramic view of the road, with a wider field of view than is currently available.
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/14 "2004-11-11T22:32:01Z")
I’m not sure I get the “where’s the passenger seat?” question. Vehicles with bench seats can accommodate three across, generally, whether they’re in the front or the back. So a centrally located driver could install his hot babes on both sides of him. 🙂
Actually, with drive-by-wire, you could put the driver anywhere in the car you wanted. No mechanical reason to prefer any location at all.
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### Author:  [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2004, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/15 "2004-11-12T08:19:50Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#):
>
> (Even better, lets go for a center-hand gas cap.)
1966 Mk2 Triumph Spitfire. Oh god, I miss that car.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2004, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/16 "2004-11-12T18:20:12Z")
Tiff Needell, _Top Gear_ presenter and retired crap Formula One driver summed up the McLaren’s seating arrangement best (paraphrased):
“I’ll take the Lamborghini over the McLaren any day because I’d rather not cruise down the Bois Boulougne at the level of my wife’s knees.”
The McLaren F1, you see, had two passenger seats set behind and outside the driver’s seat in such a way that they pointed slightly to their respective sides. A novel arrangement and certainly space-efficient, but just not conducive to the primary purpose of any six-figure supercar: letting you swish by in style.
> [@Middlecase](#):
>
> There used to be a French sports-car manufacturer - Matra, I think it was - which had a model with a central front seat, with a passenger seat on either side. For taking your wife and mistress away on a dirty weekend, presumably.
Matra considered a central-driver’s-seat arrangement on the [Bagheera](http://www.autoretropassion.com/matra/bag-s2-1.jpg), but it was put into production with a more conventional “three-seats-across, driver on the left” arrangement because a central seating position would have required the steering and drivetrain to be designed from scratch.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2004, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/17 "2004-11-12T21:56:52Z")
> [@Cervaise](#):
>
> I’m not sure I get the “where’s the passenger seat?” question. Vehicles with bench seats can accommodate three across, generally, whether they’re in the front or the back. So a centrally located driver could install his hot babes on both sides of him. 🙂
> .
Do they still make vehicles with bench seats? Are they even legal anymore?
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/18 "2004-11-12T23:37:26Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> Do they still make vehicles with bench seats? Are they even legal anymore?
Yeah, my parents Buick’s got 'em. Why would they be illegal?
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### Author:  [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2004, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/19 "2004-11-13T05:51:20Z")
> [@Jervoise](#):
>
> Oops, substitute RHS for LHS.
>
> _Driving in the inside lane places you further from the centre of the road, if you’re seated on the LEFT-hand side of the vehicle. You’d be closer to the centre of the road if you sat in the middle of the car._
This isn’t correct if I’m reading you correctly. If you’re in the US, you’re on the left side of your car, and on the inside lane, the main divider (center of the road) will be to your immediate left, hence you’re as close as you can be to oncoming traffic.
In Euorpe, the reverse is true - right side of the car, main divider to your immediate right.
You could make a case that putting you in the center of the car lets you see traffic to your left and right equally, but oncoming traffic presents the greater risk of a catastrophic collision.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2004, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technological-conventions/274161/20 "2004-11-13T06:05:11Z")
> [@](#):
>
> In Euorpe, the reverse is true - right side of the car, main divider to your immediate right.
All countries in Europe drive the correct way, except them crazy Brits on the left side.
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