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army1987 comments on The cup-holder paradox - Less Wrong Discussion
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Indeed, I seldom drink anything while driving, the times I do I just place my drink on the passenger's seat, and I'm not sure whether I've ever even noticed cup-holders in a car.
Fellow European checking in, I can confirm that cup holders are disgraceful things that clutter up space because those overweight Americans just can't go for five minutes without ingesting water sweetened with corn syrup.
(we have an unobtrusive cup-holder between the backs of the front seats, I don't remember ever using it)
I don't think Europeans really think that about Americans, but I suspect a cup-holder, while convenient, might also give the car a bit of a subtle "low brow" feel that make people slightly less comfortable in spending large amounts of money on it. A bit like how a comfortable bike seat may be better and more comfortable by all metrics, but be shunned because comfortable seats are for pussies. And from a business perspective, if 1% of people complain about cup-holders (but buy anyway), and 10% of people subconsciously reduce the worth they give to a car because of cup-holders, then including cup-holders is a bad idea!
How prevalent are drive-through restaurants and coffee shops in Europe? I think those are the biggest sources of stuff-to-put-in-cup-holders for most Americans, and it's plausible to me that they're less common in Europe.
They pretty much don't exist. In my 50-odd years of living in the UK, I think I have seen a drive-through exactly once. (It's in a built-up area a mile or two from Heathrow Airport.) I have never seen one anywhere in Europe. And I rarely see drivers eat or drink while driving. In some circumstances, the police may even take the view that you are Driving Without Due Care and Attention.
I don't even know if my car has a cupholder. There's an odd-shaped recess near floor level, between and in front of the front seats, with no obvious function, but I have never had reason to put anything in it. A cupholder is not a thing it would even occur to me to look for when considering a new car.
ETA: Having just been in it, I can see that the "odd-shaped recess" is indeed a cupholder. One learns something every day.
They're rare.
Some fast food restaurants do also have a drive-through window, but IME few people actually use it. I guess that unlike Americans, we're not so strapped for time that it'd be a big deal to park the car and sit down in the restaurant for the ~15 minutes it takes to eat a fast food meal. (I dunno whether this also applies in larger cities or wealthier, more northern parts of Europe, though.)
Irrelevant. Europe gets completely different cars than the US. Some automakers don't even sell the same models in Europe and the US. If European automakers design cars for the US market according to European preferences, THAT is exactly the kind of massive failure in cognition I'm looking for.
You may revise your opinion on cup-holders if you ever spend 3 hours a day commuting on a regular basis.
I know quite a few Europeans who do commute.
I keep loose change in it for when I need it when (say) paying motorway tolls, as my father does; it had never occurred to me to use it for anything else. IIRC my mother keeps stuff like crucifixes and medals of saints in it, and the couple cars I glanced into on my way from the parking lot this morning also contained non-cups such as pieces of paper.