
During last week's business trip to beautiful (?) France, Hertz did a gorss mistake and gave me
one of those luxury cars instead of the usual compact. It had electronic adjustment for everything and a seat with 8 degrees of freedom, so that you could easily find your most comfortable position. However, after
10 minutes of useless fidgeting with the controls, still feeling uncomfortable, I came to the conclusion that, no matter how many degrees of freedom the seat has or how many controls you have,
there just isn't a comfortable position while driving a car. Man was just not designed with that in mind.

Durante il viaggio di lavoro della scorsa settimana nella bella (?) Francia, Hertz ha fatto un grossolano errore e mi ha dato
una di quelle auto di lusso al posto della mia normale compatta. Aveva controllo eletronico di tutto e un sedile con 8 gradi di libertà, in modo che si potesse facilmente trovare la posizione più comoda. Però,
dopo 10 minuti di inutile giocherellare con i controlli, sentendomi sempre scomodo, sono giunto alla conclusione che, non importa quanti gradi di libertà ha il sedile o quanti controlli ci sono,
semplicemente non c'è una posizione comoda per guidare una macchina. L'uomo semplicemente non è stato progettato con quello in mente.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, July 27, 2005 at 10:28.
Please leave a comment below if you wish.
The fact is: it is good to have choice but it is not necessarily good to have too wide a choice: you end up not knowing what too choose...
More seriously, we should probably give some credit to the designers of cheaper cars who have to think of a seat which can take only, say, 3 different positions and make the most of current knowledge of ergonomics!
Anyway, I cannot believe the drive was not enjoyable... :-)
md