Do you know what a defining quality of modern cars was? Cup holder. The drinking of liquids has clearly inhaled how a small paper tube with burning weeds as a habit/truck is built into cars so often. Where once cigarettes and ashtray dominated, now Cupholder, these small cylindrical room gap. But what's in the Cupeholder design? That is a question that a child could ask but not a child's question. Fortunately, a product communication person from Nissan turned to me and offered me the opportunity to speak to one real Coupeholder designer! And they used the expression “drinks of tomorrow!”
Nissan's representative said they turned to me because I wrote to the undervalued focal holder of the driver, who exists in cars like the Nissan Cube, what I think, as I landed on his radar. He offered me to get me into contact with Chris Fischer, senior manager of the vehicle performance development, which Chris described me as a kind of “voice of the customer”. Part of the responsibilities of Chris includes the development of the cup eggers, which of course I talked to him about.
I have learned many fascinating things about the current state of Cupholder Cathedral from my conversation with Chris. For example, you know for four -door cars at this moment, what to do minimum The number of cup elders is based at least on Nissan's standards? I can tell you that there are more than two what Chris described the “costs of entering”, which is pretty much that means exactly that everyone The car existing today must have at least two cup eggs in the center console between the seats.
But let's go back to Nissan's minimum: Would you like to take a moment to advise you? Two? Four? Six? An odd number? No. It is eight.
Yes, eight! Eight cupholder is the absolute the least Number of cup eggs that Nissan puts in her four -door cars. This means that two cups in front, usually in the center console between the two sit, two in the back, usually on the back of the folded armrest and then in every door pocket that is usually designed for a water bottle. Two plus four give our eight cup earlings.
That is, every person in the car has access to two Cup holder can generally be able to sit in the back seat, which means that some of Nissan's cars can sit in the back seat, which means that every person receives 1.6 cup owners. Oh, wait, in this application, the rear 6 -arm apprenticeships would be inaccessible! Then we are up to 1.2 cups per person with five people in the car, although the accessibility for this person with a medium back seat will be difficult at best.
What is even more fascinating is what Chris told me about Nissan's market research What People put in their cup eggs, um, in terms of drinks. Personally, I would have thought that standard cans of the Soda type are quite common, but boy, I was wrong. The most common Cupholder resident seems to be refillable water bottles! This big plastic!
After large refilling water bottles, the next-drainable ship, which ends in American cupholders, seems to be paper coffee cups such as Starbucks cups or whatever in all its diversity. Then there were disposable water bottles and then much further down on the list when I expected, their standard aluminum soda sockets.
As you may have noticed how you have presented each of these “drinks” in your head, the scale varies quite dramatic from you. Chris noticed that, as with other types of interior designs, such as car seats all. As he told me
“You can make the best place in the world and still someone will complain about it “,”
… because this is the nature of humanity, I think. Cup eggers are similar; No matter how flexible you try to do it, at some point someone will try to shake something that does not fit, so that a CupEholder designer can really try to make those that fit the majority of the articles.
For this purpose, Chris' team relies on what he described “fingers” with the spring shop, which enable a cup elder with a larger diameter, to keep smaller ships safe. I am sure that you have already seen them in Cupholder. Most Nissans have three per cup, although larger SUVs and trucks such as Titan or Armada will have four. The physical inner diameter of a cup owner must be made up to the largest size of its largest targeted ship – for example, a Yeti cup tends to have a diameter of around three inches. On average, the cup eggs in most cars range from three to four inches in the inside diameter.
I also asked Chris about the advantages of the positioning of bupeders, in which HLK events could either contribute to the cooling or warming of the drink, and although he recognized that there could be some advantages, they were quite minimal, and many modern vessels are so well isolated that such a passive thermal management is quite unnecessary, and the cooling engine of the HVAC system is probably a better one Heat.
I also asked about the cupholders of the drivers, which I find so appealing, and while Chris recognized that they were “cool when they were executed well”, he stated that they are quite limited in the sizes of the ships they can use in them due to their location. As a result, I got the impression that they would remain a niche segment of the Cupeholder universe.
When I asked what the people of Cup Elders want, costs or feasibility are doomed, the results surprised me a little:
“People love adjustability and they love as many cup managers as possible. If the place were not a problem, we would add another couple in the center console. A challenge is that we make them look good, but they have to meet certain requirements – how they look cool and work well is always the challenge. At the office lighting system. “Show ambient systems.” Show ambient systems. “, They love Ambient systems,” they love Ambient systems. “.
I have also brought my ideas for integrated garbage management systems in cars-I have already written about these ideas-and the concept of a cup elder, with which empty cups and doses can be pushed into a kind of garbage container by a spring-loaded floor of the cup eggs, which can then be output. Sorta likes what I was ridiculed before:
I think he liked the idea, but I don't get the impression that Nissan will integrate into her Sentra of the next generation.
One last thing that surprised me is that the importance of the cup eggers still seems to be an American phenomenon. Chris told me that his Japanese colleagues in Nissan do not keep the cup holders in the same meaning as in America, and it seems that buyers outside the United States do not concentrate so much on the number of cup elders.
That's okay! It is another thing that we can be proud of how American. The country that cares most about drinking things while driving! USA! USA! USA!