why are the gas pedal and brake shaped the way they are?

Question

There has to be a specific reason why most cars all have similar shapes to their pedals.

In: 4757

Answer 1

This is an area of human factors called human machine interface. There are lots of MIL-STDs (I use 1472G in my job) and NASA standards that govern size, shape, etc, of the various handles, pedals, seat height, levers, etc.

Human Factors Engineering is the discipline. You are trying to create an environment for the user that prevents inadvertently activating the wrong control (hitting the gas pedal when you meant to hit the brake) while also ensuring that you can easily activate the right control (can’t find the gas pedal because it is too small).

I’m the human factors engineer for my program. AMA.