Eli5: Why is a cars drivers seat not positioned in the middle?
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Early vehicles were modelled after carriages. Horse drawn carts and carriages are what settled the country where industrial automobile manufacturing first took off. And back in those days, you had a bench at the front of the cart that you sat on to navigate and direct the horses. You could sit anywhere on the bench you wanted because there was no mechanical interface forcing you into one spot. Consequently, people got used to having someone ride beside them on the bench while they directed the horses from a non-central position. Whether it was your spouse beside you and your kids in the middle (to keep them from bouncing out) or someone taking up a security role (aka “riding shotgun”), the driver on one side and a passenger on the other was already the standard. It just so happened that dividing the passenger compartment down the middle line simplifies positioning of the power train.
The average car today could not support a passenger beside the driver if the driver was seated in the middle. And we really need people to be driving around with passengers, not burning fuel commuting by themselves and then pretending to be aghast at climate change. More passengers, fewer drivers.
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