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They're so spacious (thelemmy.club)
submitted 2 months ago by [M] to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[–] 93 points 2 months ago (21 children)

This exactly.

Bench seats are great for hanging out with afore mentioned dog and/or girl.
Bench seats are super shitty in any sort of side impact collision. There's nothing keeping you in place except your safety belt.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago (10 children)

    I mean, isn't that what the seat belt is for? I can't imagine the typical front seat in a modern car keeping you put in a collision either. They're definitely shaped comfort-first, and at best keep you from jostling around on uneven roads.

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  • [–] 34 points 2 months ago (8 children)

    It's one of the benefits of a bucket seat, and you'll note front seats have a bucket shape both on the back and the bottom. This does a LOT to keep a human in place, especially if the seatbelt is holding the human down into the bucket. Lots of surface area on the side of the leg and torso for the bucket shape. OTOH with a bench seat there's nothing at all keeping the human in place, there's just the 3 places where the strap crosses the human and those don't do very much. Seat belts are designed to keep you down in the seat.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 months ago* (5 children)

    Most passenger cars don't really have bucket seats. Bucket seats like in race cars have hard, deep structural sides, whereas in passenger cars they're just soft pillows in a very shallow bucket shape. This is obviously because getting in and out of an actual bucket seat is difficult and consumers don't like it. Because the pillows are soft, they're not going to stop you from sliding out in an impact.

    I imagine the vaguely bucket shape of modern passenger cars has basically nothing to do with safety, at least not in the "stops you from flying sideways out of your seat" sense, and is mostly just a comfort thing.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 months ago

    Having been in accidents in both a bench seat and regular car seat. I can say the car seat did a much better job of keeping my ass in place. Though having the center console to brace against may also have played a part in that.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 months ago

    Those are both bucket seats, just to different degrees.

    Imagine a camera placed where the spine or leg is looking at the side of the seat. Look at how much exposed surface area faces the camera. Let's call that surface area the 'side restraint component'. (IE, if the side panel comes 'up' out of the seat 2", and extends out 4", the side restraint component is 2").

    On a seat belt, you've got about 2" x 4" surface area on each side. So 8 square inches on each side. That's all a bench seat gives you.

    On that car seat you've got about 2.5" x 8" on the back, plus an average of let's call it 2.5" x 4" on the seat. So that's about 30 square inches on each side.

    On the racing seat you've got about 14" x 20", but cut in half as a triangle, and let's say the shoulder bit fills in the missing part by the belt opening. So call that 140 square inches per side.

    The car seat may be designed for comfort, but the side bolsters do have a restraint effect.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    And yet I find them uncomfortable as hell! For long drives anyway. The headrest bends your head forward, so then you’re forced to recline the seat to counteract it. Even your arms go a bit forward due to the bucket shape. I get the safety reasons, just can’t stand the bad posture.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Honda bucket seats are much deeper than say a random US model. Not talking about racing buckets.

    I drove a Mercedes a few months ago for a work rental. Terrible hard flat seats like sitting on a park bench

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago

    We rented a van last year and only the front seats were bucket seats, the backseat of our car is a bench seat too. In both cases they’re not smooth across the back anymore like the one in the picture, all modern bench seats have divots too.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    Sliding around is one part, the other is the lack of functional headrests in old trucks.

    Idk GMC smoking crack putting those fakers in my 1994 K1500, they're below my neck and not adjustable. Regulatory compromise, no care.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Then why is the middle seat the safest car seat?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    What additional factors does a bucket seat have to keep you in place during a side impact that a bench seat doesn't? I don't imagine the extra shoulder rest material really doing that much work.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago

    actually that little extra material makes a big difference.

    Look at it from the side (IE put a camera where your spine would be), same on the bottom where your leg would be. There's several good square inches of 'wall', much more than just a seat belt.

    And while it is angled up somewhat, the seat belt is doing a great job pulling you back down into it.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    So kind of like the backseat of most modern vehicles?

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