2019 RAV4 - Screen info buttons.

[Southern Softy]

An interesting snippet.

I notice on U.K. models the on / off switch and menu buttons are on the left hand side whilst Australian models  the same buttons are on the right hand side of the screen even though the wheel is on the right as per U.K. models - what’s that one about ?

[FROSTYBALLS]

Presume the UK/Europe models are set up for the majority of European markets (left hand drive).

[Southern Softy]

Good point,

I know BMW and Audi tend to do this, it does imply they seem a bit lazy when it comes to U.K. models however. I have long arms so not really an issue for me and I guess quite a few buttons are on the steering wheel, just an oddity though.

[Heidfirst]

4 hours ago, Southern Softy said:

I notice on U.K. models the on / off switch and menu buttons are on the left hand side whilst Australian models  the same buttons are on the right hand side of the screen even though the wheel is on the right as per U.K. models - what’s that one about ?

Assuming that we are talking about infotainment & given that the Australian vehicles seem to be using the US (so lhd) Entune infotainment system it could be that they are being lazy about changing those for the Australian market ...

[PeteB]

[OT]

Reminds me of the days when British cars (remember them!?) had the indicator stalk on the right, and wipers on the left, which they swapped for left hand drive markets.

One car, the Morris Marina (IIRC) had wipers that swept to the left pillar in the UK, leaving a blind spot for the driver.  British Leyland obviously felt a degree of fairness was required, since on LHD models they swept to the right, so that overseas owners weren't deprived of the blind spot!

[FROSTYBALLS]

1 hour ago, PeteB said:

Reminds me of the days when British cars (remember them!?) had the indicator stalk on the right, and wipers on the left, which they swapped for left hand drive markets.

In fact that was the correct set up for right hand drive cars. It was only in the mid to late 70's that manufacturers like Ford standardised on the left hand drive set up for wipers and indicators to simplify production. Which meant that British drivers had to use the same hand for changing gear and indicating.

It took until the early 90's for manufacturers like Nissan and Honda to adopt the same practice. Our 93 Nissan Sunny was the first car we had with the lhd pattern. Our 94 Honda Concerto still had the rhd pattern - although built by Rover it had different Honda switchgear to the Rover 200/400 clones.

BL tried a different arrangement to the Marina with the Allegro, where the wipers were positioned more towards the centre of the car and were kept the same for both lhd and rhd - though this resulted in both sides of the windscreen having blind spots for taller drivers.

Some VAG (eg some Seats) cars also have a compromise nowadays - where both wipers sweep up to the A pillars, and means the wipers retain the same layout for both rhd and lhd.