Cupholders Make Cars Safer?

"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction) 02/20/2015 at 13:38 • Filed to: None

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If anything, they encourage unsafe behavior (eating or drinking while driving).

I'd argue the point about automatics being safer as well...

For Sweden > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/20/2015 at 13:41

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People be hatin' cup holders then complain about being dehydrated

GTI Sprinks > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/20/2015 at 13:45

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let's all agree to formally call automatics "safety transmissions" like they should.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/20/2015 at 13:45

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WELL

my first vehicle didn't have cupholders, so I would just bring soda bottles (20 oz) so it had a closing cap, then I always had to reach over to the passenger seat and try and grab it.

Grabbing a soda in the center console cupholder is much safer.

Yes I'm American, I'm not going to stop drinking caffeinated beverages while driving. Save your breath (and keystrokes) if you plan to go that route in response.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/20/2015 at 13:46

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Unless those cup holders are in an older Euro car, in which they're typically a tray on the glovebox lid so that one can have a nice picnic lunch somewhere parked. Thus missing what some would consider the point of a drivethru altogether and ignoring the question of how the drink *gets* to the picnic site. Unless there's a cabal of Frenchmen out there who park their cars for good four years into ownership and use them as a cafe outside their house. Stranger things have happened.

DrScientist > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/20/2015 at 13:48

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try driving across the country in a car with no cupholders.

also... soda... i know we shouldn't be drinking it for however many reasons. but soda in a can is just so far superior to soda in a bottle. and with no cupholder, youre forced to drink soda in a bottle. cap on. rolling around on the passenger seat or worse, the floor, losing its carbonation, making it even less palatable.

as to the safety aspect. try reaching across the passenger seat when your soda bottle has rolled into the space between the seat and pass door?

people also are highly addicted to caffeine, and the population understands and accepts this. hell i do NOT ask my girlfriend anything more complicated than "how did you sleep" before she's had caffeine in the morning. so coffee (or cola in my gf's case) drinking in cars is going to have to be at least tolerated.

i see where youre coming from. but drinking is going to happen. and when it does... there's got to be some place to put the drink.

Svend > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/20/2015 at 13:49

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I agree with you. Drinking a cup of hot or boiling liquid whilst in control of a two ton vehicle doing 60mph with other traffic passing within a few inches also doing 60mph in a two ton vehicle so a closing speed of 120mph don't make a good mix.

What makes a good and appropriate use for a cup is a stable table doing 0mph fixed to a floor say in a kitchen, living room, diner, restaurant, etc... literally anywhere but a two ton vehicle doing 60mph.

There are things for doing in a car and there are things for not doing in a car.

Hell roads maybe even safer not merely from spilling hot or even cold fluids in a vehicle which may cause further incidents but a driver taking time out from driving to rest and relax while they consume their drink leading to better concentration once they are back in the vehicle.

TopSirloin > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/20/2015 at 14:00

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People are going to eat and drink while driving regardless of whether it's safe or not, so having a place to set your BIG GULP instead of on the passenger can be safer, considering how distracting it is when you spill 64 oz. of Mountain Dew all over the passenger seat of your car.

Svend > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/20/2015 at 14:06

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Okay. I'm a genius. Paris-Dakar drivers use a tube from the roof of the vehicle but why not one of these hung over the rear of the seat.

CalzoneGolem > For Sweden 02/20/2015 at 14:08

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WHY MY PEE SO YELLOW!?!?!?!?

BigBlock440 > Svend 02/20/2015 at 14:14

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I wish I would have thought of that this summer. That would have worked much better than stopping every few hundred miles for a coffee or to refill a mug with another caffeinated beverage.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 02/20/2015 at 14:17

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Also, from experience, just because it fits in the space, doesn't mean it's a good cup holder. Driving while trying to get a bottle out from under the brake pedal is fun.

spanfucker retire bitch > GTI Sprinks 02/20/2015 at 14:18

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Not "Fastest Shifting Transmissions in the World?"

I like that one better.

GTI Sprinks > spanfucker retire bitch 02/20/2015 at 14:21

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don't get me wrong. i like flappy paddle tiptronic dsg computer manual gearboxes too (and drive one daily) but i also agree that auto gearboxes have contributed to making driving less of an experience and more of a chore.

Hey, y'all, watch this! > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/20/2015 at 14:22

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Cupholders give me a place to put my coffee. My coffee makes things safer for everyone around me. Thus, cupholders are safety devices.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 02/20/2015 at 14:23

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but then you can sue a car company for unintended acceleration!

(don't worry about that N gear, you don't know what it means anyhow)

JGrabowMSt > spanfucker retire bitch 02/20/2015 at 14:28

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Cant short shift an auto...such crap

Mattbob > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/20/2015 at 14:33

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you say that until you get a drink and realize "oh shit, I don't have a cup holder" and then you have to hold a drink and drive a manual all the way home. Ask me how I know.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 02/20/2015 at 14:39

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Dammit, I knew I should have put a phonebook in front of the gas pedal as a floor mat.

Street Surgeon > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/20/2015 at 14:40

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People will eat and drink in their cars regardless so I would tend to agree that they do make it safer for both the driver/occupants, and the cars/others around them. Picture this, a soccer mom is late for work, she has her eight dollar piping hot latte in her lap and is late for work (or whatever) so she's driving like a badass to get there on time! Oops, latte tips, hot latte singes, and everyone around her on the road pays. Or she just slaps it in the cup holder and drives like an asshat anyway but gets to work on time without killing others :)

crowmolly > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 02/20/2015 at 14:41

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The N stands for N ever going to use this part of the gear selector

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 02/20/2015 at 14:41

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lolz

That was actually my biggest "WHAT?!" with the unintended accel cases. Sounds like you need to learn how to operate the easiest transmission by just putting it in Neutral, which you can do at speed....sounds like operator error to me!

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 02/20/2015 at 14:48

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It was even more stupid than that. A huge chunk of those cases, if not all of them, the owners were found to have put aftermarket floor mats in the car.

Sure it may have not been the best design, but it would have been very avoidable had the owner/operator had have used the as well as gone necessity of common sense.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 02/20/2015 at 14:50

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And paid attention to LIFE, I mean everyonce in a while my floor mat slides up....so I pull it back down lol.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 02/20/2015 at 14:55

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That's why it irks the fuck out of me whenever someone compares this recall to the GM recall. Two completely different circumstances. One was caused by the new American way of being stupid and getting lots of money for it, and one was caused by incompetence on the manufacturer's side.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 02/20/2015 at 14:58

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Indeed, and this from a guy who met the lawyer of the coffee + crotch = sue McDonalds case.

For the record she deserved every penny, McD's was terrible about the whole thing.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 02/20/2015 at 15:02

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I'm personally okay with suing McDick's for pretty much any reason.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 02/20/2015 at 15:05

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to give you the rough story.

"McDonalds we tested your coffee, it's over 50 degrees hotter than any other coffee from any other store, it's guaranteed to burn even your mouth"

MCD- "Don't care, we will have the HOTTEST cup of coffee you can buy, don't care"

"We'll drop the lawsuit if you lower the temp of your coffee to make it safe"

MCD- "No, we will have the hottest cup of coffee you can buy, don't care about the burn risk. We'll put a "Caution Hot" logo on it and call it a day"

This goes back and forth multiple times, McD's does not give a shit if they burn you.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > GTI Sprinks 02/20/2015 at 16:30

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Yes!

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Street Surgeon 02/20/2015 at 16:35

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I agree with you, but your argument is similar to saying people are going to drive drunk anyway, so why don't we make cars that can stay between the lines and brake for themselves.

Oh, right...

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/20/2015 at 16:37

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I know they serve a purpose, but I feel strongly that the world would be a better place without drive-through restaurants...

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > TopSirloin 02/20/2015 at 16:39

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I agree with you, but your argument is similar to saying people are going to drive drunk anyway, so why don't we make cars that can stay between the lines and brake for themselves.

Oh, right...

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Hey, y'all, watch this! 02/20/2015 at 16:39

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Best answer of the bunch.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Svend 02/20/2015 at 16:48

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Exactly. If you don't have the 10 minutes it takes to sit down and drink your Big Gulp and eat your Whopper and fries, you really need to reassess time management in your life.

Svend > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/20/2015 at 17:03

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So true. You're a long time dead so why not use the time you have to live and hopefully live a little longer because of it.

Street Surgeon > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/20/2015 at 22:07

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Well, it's similar in that it's not similar at all. My statement refers to a typical legal (and pretty safe all things considered) driving behavior that 99.999999999999% of all vehicle owners participate in from the day they get their license until the day they stop driving.

The other is an illegal activity, the remedy for which does not currently exist in a fashion as to make it a viable alternative to "manual" driving ;)

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Street Surgeon 02/21/2015 at 14:32

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Anything that distracts from the act of driving should be discouraged. Piloting a two ton hunk of metal at 70 mph is serious business, and the most dangerous activity that most of us will do each day.

Talking on the phone while driving is still legal in many states, even though it's been proven to be just as dangerous as driving drunk. Are people still going to do it? Yes, of course. Should we still discourage it? Clearly.

http://www.unews.utah.edu/old/p/062206-1…

Street Surgeon > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/21/2015 at 15:45

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Agreed, all cup holders, radios, booze dispensers, phones/communication equipment, infotainment systems, etc should be hereby banned and everyone will be issued their state approve Lotus Elise so they can focus on driving :)

In the meantime, yes cup holders are a simple way to help lower the chance of an accident :)