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> Power steering and power brakes were added to accommodate female drivers. This is a myth. Power steering and power brakes were developed to make driving easi
by RankingMember 1y ago
> Power steering and power brakes were added to accommodate female drivers.
This is a myth. Power steering and power brakes were developed to make driving easier and safer for all drivers as vehicles became larger and heavier. Some of the advertising from the era framed the features as helpful to female drivers, but this was just that- advertising.
- WalterBright 1y agoI'm not so sure that was a myth. My dad drove long before power brakes. Women often had trouble executing a hard stop due to the pedal force required, along with the primitive brakes. He said the term "women drivers" came about because of the difficulty they had muscling the controls in emergency conditions. (Power steering, too.) They also wanted to sell cars to little old ladies.
- RankingMember 1y agoThat power steering/brakes made the experience easier for women doesn't mean they were implemented for women, though, and there's no evidence that this was the reasoning behind their invention (e.g. power steering was first used en masse in large trucks in 1938, which few women would've been driving). These features made the driving experience easier for everyone, and so were originally luxury features when first implemented for cars (the Chrysler Imperial being the first mass-produced car to have power steering, known as "Hydraguide").