Henry Ford did it

One, at the time unusual, feature of Henry Ford’s Model T was that it was the first car of consequence to put the driver’s seat on the left-hand side. Previously manufacturers placed this on the outer kerb side so that on alighting the driver could step out onto a grassy verge or dry pavement rather mud of an unpaved road.  

Ford reasoned that this convenience would be better appreciated by the lady of the house and so arranged seating for her benefit. The arrangement also gave the driver a better view down the road and made it easier for drivers to stop and have a conversation out of facing windows.

Henry Ford was no great thinker but he did understand human nature. Such was the popularity of Ford’s seating plan that it soon became adopted as the standard by all American car makers. 

The Model T was an immediate success. In it’s first full year of production  Ford produced  10,607 cars, more than any manufacturer ever had before , and still couldn’t meet demand . Production, more or less, doubled annually, by 1913/14  it was 250,000 cars a year and by 1920/21 over 1.25 million