Engineering for Older Drivers

Matt Fulkerson

Wed Oct 15 19:48:26 -0700 2008

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Good idea!  I am only 34, but I can already anticipate the future benefits.  I took 3 years off from biking, only to find that my left knee wasn't too happy with my efforts to get back in shape.  It's even effecting my hypermiling efforts, as I have to minimize how often I pop the clutch!  On top of that, I have always had a terrible short term memory, and I'm terrible at multitasking.  I try not to extrapolate to my later years.

Engineering for Older Drivers

Angus McInnes

Thu Oct 16 00:52:41 -0700 2008

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What do they have against actually employing older people to test the designs and give feedback? Surely that would be much cheaper and more practical.

Engineering for Older Drivers

mrjk

Thu Oct 16 06:08:07 -0700 2008

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That is OK, but they would still need to do something like this for the people who actually generate the designs. One real experience trumps all feedback.

Engineering for Older Drivers

President4242

Thu Oct 16 08:52:50 -0700 2008

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Hmm, maybe they should be hiring some older people to generate the designs?  It's not like there is any shortage of 40+ unemployed engineers out there.

Engineering for Older Drivers

stephen

Thu Oct 16 06:24:44 -0700 2008

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I'm sorry, but if you cannot turn the steering wheel or press the pedals vigorously because you have arthritis or you cannot see something in the car because you have cataracts, you should not be driving.

If you are so dependent on the power steering and power braking that you are unable to turn or stop if your engine dies at freeway speed, you should not be driving.

Invest in public transportation.

Driving

zogger

Thu Oct 16 10:54:46 -0700 2008

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That's a matter of degree. Making the dashboard with better visibility for the gauges, making so the knobs work easily, making it so it is easier to get in and out of the vehicle,etc is not a huge problem as long as it is addressed. Designing all consumer things so only people in their 20s and 30s can use them is rather much an eugenics approach. As in.. be prepared to enter the disintegration chamber once you have outlived the Fatherland's "useful young consumer" phase of existence. You really want to go that direction? Or accept reality that as you get older some times you need a little help to cope.

Like what's wrong with handrails? A lot of people can get by without them climbing stairs, but it helps as you get older. But should we eliminate them and say they are useless and a waste because some people don't need them at some point during their life, and everyone else should just stop walking places that involve using stairs, use that as a criteria? Or ramps so folks in wheelchairs can get about, heck with it, if they can't walk and climb a curb, they should just stay home? How far do you want to go with this "only perfectly functioning young humans may access the outside world" deal?

I like to bump default font sizes up a little just so I can see the screen, so I shouldn't be able to use the computer unless I can get by with tiny fonts that younger folks can see easily?

And this saying "public transportation" to get *exactly* to what we are talking about, is simply impractical, borderline nonsensical in the US, we don't all live in big cities where there is a modicum of public transportation, nor could we all, nor could society afford it to change that way, and once you hit the exurbs and beyond, "public transportation" doesn't exist for most practical purposes beyond the odd greyhound bus and some meals on wheels action, and we don't have an extra several dozen trillion to build and operate a universal public transportation sector besides what we already have, which is called roads. And that means cars and back to the article.

And maybe that is something the automakers will address, perhaps a graceful degradation between full power everything and it not working. I know once in my old full sized van I lost power steering, OK on the highway, rather a PITA even as a strong dude in the city if that happens unexpectedly, a lot of people probably couldn't have handled it in an emergency reaction circumstance, young folks or not. Stuff like that *needs* to be worked on by these automakers, and it looks like they are.

Engineering for Older Drivers

pyro9

Sat Oct 18 17:09:12 -0700 2008

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How about if you are perfectly capable of getting the car pulled over and stopped should the engine fail but driving for an hour or 2 without good power steering and brakes leaves you aching and tired? Perhaps you are perfectly capable of spotting the cars 20-100 feet away, but the tiny print on the dash controls is a bit fuzzy without reading glasses (which you should NOT be wearing while driving).

Wouldn't you rather that those people (who are perfectly capable of driving) be able to quickly make out the controls so they don't fumble with them while driving? Don't you want them to be at their best rather than distracted by joint aches and fatigue?

This is not about allowing people to drive when they're otherwise too frail to contemplate it, it's about allowing those who are perfectly capable of driving but older to do so more easily and safely.

I'm not there yet, but it's unrealistic to believe I never will be. That honest realization doesn't even begin to really occur to people until they reach middle age.

Where I live, the nearest public transportation is 4 miles away. People here WILL drive. It's better to make it easy for them.