Is the floor shifter going away?

[engineman]

Originally Posted by easy62

And Ford had a push button automatic transmission in the center of the steering wheel on the 1958 Edsel.


Attachment 210007

That proved to be a highly developed bad idea. It required a bundle of wires that eventually chafed through from turning the steering wheel and shorted out.

I had a 61 Dodge Lancer that had the buttons on the left end of the dashboard that worked very well.

I had a few 1950s English cars that had 4 speed on the column.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by cvetters63

EVs could easily be made without a center console. None have yet, but I expect it to go that way.






Bench seats? They work in trucks but getting a front center airbag and working passive restraints in a CAR just wasn't feasible so they went away.

I don't think that is the problem. The center airbag would come out of the dashboard, just like the right side airbag above the glovebox. It might even be possible to have one giant airbag for both the center and right side passengers.

[cvetters63]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

I don't think that is the problem. The center airbag would come out of the dashboard, just like the right side airbag above the glovebox. It might even be possible to have one giant airbag for both the center and right side passengers.

Actually putting it in where a screen goes is a hard one, and the big one was the days of the passive restraints as making an automatic seatbelt for the center passenger in front was damn near impossible.