Try imagining your car without a cup holder! Impossible, isn’t it? A cup holder is an essential part of the interior design of present day automobiles, but, there was a time when these cup holders were regarded as just another accessory to the car as suspension systems in those days were so rudimentary when compared to today’s standards that, the idea of drinking coffee while driving was too ridiculous to be considered seriously. Cup holders have become an indispensible part of automobiles today and automobile engineers cannot be blamed for not thinking about these holders back then.
With the beginning of the era of theaters and drive-through restaurants the need for cup holders arose. Initial drink holders were basically shabby efforts by restaurant attendants to attach a provisional tray to the side windows of four wheelers. The need for better design to hold cups tested the ingenuity of automotive manufacturers. Later on, a few automobile production companies started offering notched glove sections to hold the drinking cups. Preventing the cups from sliding was the best thing that these contraptions could do. Any effort to access these holders in a moving vehicle resulted in slopping and spilling of the drink. However, the unusual problem of taking pleasure in a drink in a moving vehicle was still unsolved.
Later designs had cup holders fixed to the inside of the car doors to provide easy access to the passenger. Even with these developments the cup holders were not successful in satisfying both the aesthetic and efficacy requirements. These cup holders reduced the leg space drastically which resulted in a very inconvenient drive. They were also susceptible to sporadic slamming of the doors. With improvement in automotive technology better designs of cup holders were made.
Today, cup holders are usually prepared to hold cups of all shapes and sizes securely. Spring loaded holders are used which hold onto the cups irrespective of their size.
Cup holders have not been welcomed with the same enthusiasm all over the world. The Europeans do not bother much about cup holders and consider it as yet another example of American profligacy. However, a number of four wheels incorporate cup holders in their design today due to globalization and assimilation of world markets.
Cup holders still have a long way to go in terms of improvement in design and convenience and it would be underrating to human prospective for innovation and development if we thought this was the end of road for cup holders.