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100 years ago, cars got 3 pedals and a steering wheel, all human powered. The reason was that without power steering, you might need both hands. And without power brakes, it needed to be a pedal for the same reason horse carriages put the brake as a pedal: you might need to press on it for all you were worth. That was the same time San Francisco installed Lombard Street for a very important purpose: to enable people to get a car from the top of Lombard to the bottom without power brakes.
Since then, it's been legal for disabled people to modify their cars in all sorts of ways, so long as they could pass the driver's test in their modded car. A lot of those mods are just as useful for able bodied folks.
Nowadays, in hybrid cars, those pedals control a software implemented brake and acceleration system. Might it be time to change the interface so the controls are managed by those parts of the human body actually meant to perform delicate tasks?
Since then, it's been legal for disabled people to modify their cars in all sorts of ways, so long as they could pass the driver's test in their modded car. A lot of those mods are just as useful for able bodied folks.
Nowadays, in hybrid cars, those pedals control a software implemented brake and acceleration system. Might it be time to change the interface so the controls are managed by those parts of the human body actually meant to perform delicate tasks?
