Before the 1920s, the throttle pedal was not always on the right but in the middle! Hang on…
Jerrica · Nov 7, 2021 04:00 PM
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It is common knowledge that the right foot pedal is the accelerator while the left or, if the car is a manual, in the middle, is used to slow or stop the car. Meanwhile, in a manual car, the leftmost pedal is to release the clutch to change gears. But did you know that back when the car was first invented, not all car foot pedals were arranged like so?
Because of the lack of standardise foot pedal placement buying a car before the 1920s is very much like choosing between buying a Windows and a Mac. You have to choose which operating system you're more used to and which OS is easier to use. Only instead of choosing an OS, you're choosing which car's foot pedal placement you're more used to.
Yes, the current foot pedal arrangement that we know today was not used by all manufacturers before the 1920s. Cars from the oldest brands in the world like Renault, Peugeot, Fiat, Land Rover, and Dodge will likely have the accelerator pedal in the middle.
In the Ford Model T, the throttle wasn’t even controlled by the foot pedals but via a lever on the steering wheel. The pedals were used to switch gears hence the letter ‘R’ on one of the pedals. See? Not uniformed.
Ford Model T
You might think that this is highly inappropriate and unsafe, but remember that as the automotive scene was still new at that time, there was no regulation to unify the placement of car controls.
It wasn’t until 1908 when the Prussian (a state in Germany now) military started standardising the placement of the pedals the way we know it.
Army vehicles were required to have the throttle pedal on the right while the clutch pedal remains on the leftmost to ensure military personnel could easily handle the cars.
Car manufacturers slowly adapted to the pedal arrangements specified by the Prussian military. This is because it quickly became apparent that car buyer behaviour of that era seems to be influenced by the car’s foot pedal arrangement.
This car has 4 pedals and we don't even know what each pedal does
It was only by the 1920s that most if not all car manufacturers fully adopted the standardised arrangement that is used up until today.
Fun fact: the pedals in a Mercedes-Benz of that era were even marked with the words ‘Brake’ and ‘Clutch’ making the pedals larger than the throttle pedal. The step plates were also designed to prevent shoes from slipping off.
When the ‘50s rolled around, automatic type transmissions started becoming mainstream. Cars began dropping the clutch pedal, leaving only the accelerator and brake pedals until this day.
During the early 2000s, some manufacturers decided to use a foot-operated parking brake instead of a handbrake lever in passenger cars. But that too made way for electronic parking brakes where drivers can just press a button to release the brake.
The foot pedals are one of the things that have remained unchanged in the car for the past 135 years since its invention in 1886. Even if autonomous cars become the ‘it’ thing in the future, foot pedals will still be present in case the passengers need to take over.
Imagine if Bertha Benz were to travel to the present, she will still know how to drive a car despite the evolution throughout the century.
There isn’t a time in memory that doesn’t involve staring at cars. After discovering the excitement of watching Schumacher vs Hakkinen, Formula 1 became a major part of life. The love for cars and F1 ultimately led to a job with CAR Magazine. The untimely death of the magazine meant a hiatus from cars at lifestyle women’s magazine Marie Claire before another opportunity came knocking again.
