Porsche and BMW Are Testing Extra Wide Cars for Overweight Drivers

And the amazing thing is that they may be late to the party. Typical family cars have become a foot wider and almost double the weight in the last fifty years according to reports in Britain's Telegraph.

The new luxury car initiative, dubbed 'Plump My Ride,' aims to determine what sort of changes can be made in car design to accomodate the wide body drivers who aspire to them.

While some may chuckle, the project is actually a mix of the German penchant for exacting design engineering and a bit of sympathy. The companies have taken note that western populations are becoming more obese. Those people frequently have to struggle to use products presumed to be for 'normally' sized people. But, in yet another chapter from the narrative on what constitutes the New Normal, normally sized people today are bigger. And a significant proportion of the population is much bigger. If the luxury car makers can figure out how to make the driving experience more comfortable they stand to sell more cars. Even previously normal people who have tried to enter or exit a low slung Porsche may take notice. JL

Dina Spector reports in Business Insider:

Americans are fat and getting fatter, and so is the rest of the world. In response to this trend, luxury car manufacturers are testing wider cars and other innovations.

According to the Telegraph, BMW has launched a study, appropriately called "plump my ride," to see how obesity affects drivers' mobility.

Eight-hundred volunteers of all different sizes will be tested on limits to motion, such as how easy it is for them to get in out of cars or look over their shoulder while backing up.

But BMW isn't the only automaker adapting to the changing needs of customers. Mercedes, Porsche, Honda, and Ford have all been forced to make adjustments as a result of passengers and drivers becoming more overweight.

Innovations include stronger grab handles above the doors, "electrically-powered steering columns," "sausage finger" buttons, reversing aids and blind spot detectors, according to The Telegraph.