Today, it is almost an impossible task to visualize your comfy car without a cup holder. There was a time when these cup holders were regarded as just another accessory to the car, but today, they have become an essential part of the interior design of every automobile.
You cannot blame the early automotive designers for not thinking about adding something like this back then. The suspension systems in those days were so rudimentary when compared to today’s standards that the idea of drinking coffee while driving was too far-fetched to be considered seriously.
The ingenuity of automotive manufacturers was tested in this direction with the beginning of the era of theaters and drive-through restaurants. The initial and also the basic cup holders were shabby efforts by restaurant attendants to attach a provisional tray to the side windows of four wheelers. Later on, a few automobile production companies started offering notched glove sections to hold the drinking cups. However, even after all this; the unusual problem of taking pleasure in a drink in a moving vehicle was still unsolved. Preventing the cups from sliding was the best thing that these contraptions could do. Any effort to assess these holders in a moving vehicle resulted in slopping and spilling of the drink.
Even with developments at a later stage, the cup holders were not successful in satisfying both the visual and efficacy requirements. They were usually fixe to the inside of car doors. These cup holders reduced the leg space drastically and also were susceptible to sporadic slamming of the doors. The current production of cup holders are usually prepared to hold cups of all shapes and sizes securely. A trendy method to accomplish this is to make use of spring loaded holders which hold onto the cups irrespective of their size.
These appendages have obviously not been welcomed with the same enthusiasm throughout the world. Europeans do not bother much about these cup holders and when asked, they take the opportunity to describe this invention as yet another example of American way of profligacy. However, a number of four wheels incorporate cup holders in their design today due to globalization and assimilation of world markets.
We would, of course, be underrating human prospective for innovation and development if we thought this was the end of road for cup holders. There are still a number of ways in which their convenience can be improved and we can rely on our auto manufacturers to keep running until they have accomplished the best.
