• Triumph@fedia.io
      76·
      5 days ago

      Came here to say that whoever wrote this is old, like me.

      The switch from 10/2 to 9/3 is because of airbags. If you’re doing it the old way, you’re more likely to have the airbag catch your hand and whack you right in the face with it.

      • zaphodb2002@sh.itjust.works
        41·
        5 days ago

        10 and 2 was always stupid. When I was young I got an opportunity to go to a racing school and that was one of the first things they talked about. If you mime driving a car, do you put your hands at 10 and 2? No, you’ll probably do 9 and 3. Better control, less going hand over hand.

        Also you should push the steering wheel with your outside hand, not pull it. Smoother input.

        • Triumph@fedia.io
          18·
          5 days ago

          Aha, hand over hand, now I get to wax poetic about that.

          Hand over hand steering was useful up until maybe the mid 1960s. Later, too, but after about 1967, power steering was becoming more the norm. Cars were far more likely to not have power steering. Instead, they employed lower range steering gear boxes and giant trash can lid steering wheels. In order to make a regular old 90 degree turn, you’d have to crank the wheel over way more than you do on a modern car, and the car was heavier, had steel wheels (more mass to move).

          They continue to teach it today, because if your car loses power and/or shuts off (ICE cars especially, not impossible with EVs) or the power steering otherwise fails while you’re moving, you’re really going to want to know how to hand over hand steer. It’s much more difficult to steer a car with power steering that’s dead/broken than a car that just doesn’t have power steering at all. Why they still demand it for drivers’ tests on every turn, I don’t know. You should be able to demonstrate that you can do it, but hand over hand steering on essentially every car today is more clumsy, as long as everything is working properly.

          e:

          If you mime driving a car, do you put your hands at 10 and 2? No, you’ll probably do 9 and 3.

          Only if that’s the standard you were taught, and the cars that you learned to drive were ones where that made more sense. I mean, just look where Toonces puts his paws.

          • errer@lemmy.worldEnglish
            13·
            5 days ago

            I had a Chevy S10 without power steering and man steering that thing at low speeds was such a bitch (such as when you’re trying to do a three point turn). You get a real workout every time you drive. So grateful power steering is in all cars nowadays.

            • Triumph@fedia.io
              4·
              5 days ago

              Yeah … There was a weird in between time where there were still some small vehicles without p/s, but they were still using similar steering boxes or racks, and the same smaller steering wheel. I’m pretty sure that rack and pinion steering is more difficult without power assist, too, or because a different enough gearing would change the packaging, need too much room, increase design/production/manufacture costs too much - they just went fuck it and removed p/s without changing anything else because “good enough”.

              I don’t remember whether the S10 had rack and pinion or pitman arm style.

              • Mcdolan@lemmy.world
                1·
                4 days ago

                I’m also pretty sure if your car had power steering but its not working then turning is harder than on a car designed not using power steering. Pretty sure they change up some great ratios.

            • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
              2·
              5 days ago

              We had a 70s F-350 flatbed with no power steering for hauling stuff around the farm. Actually driving the truck was as much of a workout as loading the bed

          • SailorFuzz@lemmy.world
            5·
            5 days ago

            This is the kind of excited spew of hyperfixated knowledge that only those touched by the tism could produce.

            • Triumph@fedia.io
              3·
              5 days ago

              My wife is the NT in a house full of NDs, so she has some inkling of what it’s like to be us.

          • snooggums@piefed.worldEnglish
            4·
            5 days ago

            Hand over hand is better for ensuring you have a grip that can go either direction if something pulls on your wheels suddenly, like in slippery conditions. It isn’t necessary to pull it like climbing the rope in gym class with power steering, but awkward hand positions can lead to loss of control.

        • BluesF@lemmy.world
          2·
          5 days ago

          Drying a dinner plate was how my teacher described turning. Starting with both hands opposite (10/2 or 9/3 would work fine) - push with one hand and slide the other one towards it until they meet at the top, then switch which hand is holding and reverse the motion, so you end up doing both, but you never cross your hands.

        • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.caEnglish
          1·
          4 days ago

          10 and 2 (and now 9 and 3, though to a lesser extent) is just a visual indicator of what drivers you need to be extra wary of when they’re around you

          not all 9&3s are, but pretty much all 10&2s

          and the 9&3s you don’t have to worry about are very easy to identify, because they’re not driving 53 in a 60 designed for 80km/h, unable to stay straight in the lane, and not staring dead ahead with dead eyes

      • Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.caEnglish
        5·
        5 days ago

        It’s mainly for better control of the vehicle. At 9 and 3, you can pull the steering wheel straight down to turn.

        Source: I teach advanced performance driving.

            • Triumph@fedia.io
              4·
              5 days ago

              I elucidated in another comment.

              e: Rereading that comment, maybe the connection didn’t make much sense. In older cars, 10/2 was a better starting place for doing hand over hand, because if you wanted to turn (say) left, you’d start by pulling your left hand down and right hand left. Then remove your left hand, pull down with the right while grabbing over with your left. Switch hands, left pulls down, switch, right pulls down.

              Starting with hands at 9/3 means you would have less on that first down pull with the left, and have to push up with the right. When every normal turn required hand over hand steering, 10/2 was more sensible.

              • Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.caEnglish
                3·
                5 days ago

                I was always taught that it was 10 and 2 in older cars mainly because they had much larger diameter steering wheels, and 9 and 3 would just be too wide so you had less leverage to turn the wheel.

          • Grabthar@lemmy.world
            1·
            4 days ago

            Weird. I don’t think I have driven a modern car that lets you put your hands around the wheel at 9 and 3 because that’s where the centre/airbag attaches. Most also have a third point at 6, so 10 and 2 or 8 and 4 seems more appropriate. Are you only supposed to rest your hands on the outside of the wheel now?

            • Triumph@fedia.io
              3·
              4 days ago

              There are generally spokes at around the 9/3 positions, but it’s not terrible to also put your hands there usually. Still, my 2015 car has the steering stalks where they’re easier to operate at 10/2, and some extra tactile features on the wheel at 10/2, so clearly the auto industry hasn’t caught up yet.

              • Zink@programming.dev
                3·
                3 days ago

                You rest your thumbs atop the 9/3 spokes, right in the corner where they meet the wheel. You grab the wheel starting from that position and you’ve got a good solid 9/3 grip across the equator of the wheel for safety and/or performance.

                Your distance from the steering wheel matters a lot too. To check that you can put your arms straight out in front of you while in your normal position. Your wrists should touch the top of the wheel with your arms outstretched like that.

                I heard these tips from some professional driver on a TV show. I think it might have been Tiff Needel on Fifth Gear.

        • Triumph@fedia.io
          3·
          5 days ago

          Yeah, I can see that, too. Definitely more than one additional injury risk that is easily mitigated by changing hand position habits. Totally makes sense that they changed the way driving is taught.

      • snooggums@piefed.worldEnglish
        4·
        5 days ago

        With better control the airbags won’t go off.

        9:30 and 2:30 is optimal and hands are to the side for an accident.

        • iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works
          6·
          5 days ago

          With better control the airbags won’t go off.

          You can have the best control in the world and still get rear-ended, T-boned, or otherwise crashed into by someone else. Defensive driving isn’t 100% crash-proof and shit happens, my friend. There’s a lot of dumb people on the road.

  • Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca
    23·
    5 days ago

    I have so many memories of my dad driving us up to the corner store, beer in hand, to put $5 in the tank and rent us Megaman 4.

  • MidsizedSedan@lemmy.world
    17·
    5 days ago

    Sad that the default of the current world is “can you drive?”

    Mate, I can barely hold a conversation with people Ive worked with for 3+ years. How am I going to communicate via flashing lights to strangers, while driving a 1000kg hunk of metal at 50kph?

    I think I can contribute to society. (I haven’t been fired yet. So I must be doing something right) but must I be cut out of social weekend events, or anything after 6pm, JUST because i cant drive?

    • BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world
      4·
      5 days ago

      Well there’s always Uber and public transportation but both of those can be inconvenient at times. Someday I will get better at driving to get my own car though

  • TwoBeeSan@lemmy.world
    10·
    5 days ago

    No joke I took my driving test in a random minivan because my dad wrecked his car that I practiced in in a DUI

    No wonder I don’t like driving lol

    • rekabis@lemmy.ca
      3·
      4 days ago

      Yes,because dad cool, mom uncool.

      Funny sexism from the 50s.

      Or maybe mom responsible adult, dad irresponsible man-child?

      It’s the funny anti-male gender bigotry of this century.

      I don’t think great-grandpa could make a meme like this, so your characterization is probably going to be the much less likely source. And honestly, it has the same man-hating, man-as-incompetent-idiot stench as a lot of feminist propaganda.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
      3·
      5 days ago

      That’s putting it a bit abrasively, but there’s a nugget of truth there.

      An anecdote: I saw some (drug?) commercial where the wife orders pizza because the Dad’s a bumbling idiot for even attempting to use the kitchen. Everything about the way it was presented just screamed… ‘50s sexism,’ basically?