I was looking at a little Japanese car today and the majority of the dashborad was in the middle of the car, not in front of the driver and I thought "well they drive on the wrong side of the road there, must be come cost cutting measure." Then I thought "Imagine how much time and money is wasted on making left hand and right hand drive vehicles, all the rest of the car is identical, just the stearing wheel is moved." So I wondered how we could make cars for right and left hand drive markets more economical, and here's how, Drive by Wire. A car would be designed with a modular mounting bracket, on each side, where they could plug, at the factory or dealer, a drive by wire stearing wheel/ dashboard/ shifter (works for automatics only) assembly into one side on the front (right or left) and a dashboard/glove compartment assembly onto the other side, there would also be a gas/break assembly for either right or left, and all of these would be electronic controls, no mechanical and or hydrolic connections, so they can be swaped in the shop with nothing more then a screwdriver and some time. There a can for the entire would whatever side of the road you drive on.
-- Hirudinea, Jun 27 2009

Mclaren F1 and also Drive-by-wire (oh you already said that but didn't look it up). Usually I would just say baked. But this really is widely known to exist, but not widely adopted as a standard.
-- 4whom, Jun 27 2009


having done a couple of LH/RH swaps for race purposes I have disagree with the entire thesis. The expense an complexity of a 100% drive by wire system far far exceeds any perceived benefits for international travel and ease of change.
-- WcW, Jun 28 2009


Oh my, why should you compromise reliability to versatility when you can have both in a system? Trash your drive-by-wire contraption. Instead, make the side-oriented steering shaft linked to the middle bottom assembly by a universal joint yoke and telescoping tubes. Upon user preferrence, the steering column can be slid to any position between left and right sides.
-- rotary, Jun 28 2009


Napoleon is the reason so much of the world drives on the right. In England and other places we tend to pass on the left so we can pass each other warily - with our "sword arm" presented the person you pass.

However Napoleon was left-handed so he changed things around both for France and all the countries he conquered (most of Europe). It also spread to their colonies and the odd place here and there gripped by middle-class revolutionary zeal.
-- Aristotle, Jun 28 2009


alternatively you could put the car-side of the steering column in the middle and make interchangeable "passenger's side" and "driver's side" dash modules.

The operator-end portion of the steering mechanism connects to the carside portion through a mechanical Z connection which can be switched from left to right or even vice versa.
-- FlyingToaster, Jun 28 2009



random, halfbakery