[ELI5] Why are steering wheels almost never in the middle of a car
In: Engineering
Not practical in any way. You’d have to slide into the middle, you’d lose passenger space up front because you’d still need someplace for gear shifter and other controls on one side, and only have half the width on other side. You’d have worse vision due to distance from both A pillars. You’d have a harder time seeing center line between you and oncoming traffic.
In addition to blipsman’s explanation, you want the driver to sit on the side of the car closest to the middle of the road. That makes it easier to maintain a safe distance between you and the cars on the other side of the road.
In some countries people drive on the right side of the road and have the steering wheel on the left side of the car, and in other countries it’s the other way around.
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