I absolutely can't relate to those results. I drive very much per year and I WAY prefer my old, completely analog Volvo 940 instrument cluster over any digital display.
The difference between 31 and 32 MPH on my analogue gauge is less than 1mm. Do you really think people can quickly assess a spacings like that as they glance down? To read my digital gauge I only have to register a couple of 3cm high digits. The analogue dial may be good for trends, but for following a precise speed to lock yourself to the speed limit, they are very unsatisfactory. I would really like to see some statistics for accident rates on roads with speed cameras. I suspect people are looking away from the road to check their speed far more often than they otherwise would, which has to be bad for safety.
I absolutely can't relate to those results. I drive very much per year and I WAY prefer my old, completely analog Volvo 940 instrument cluster over any digital display. To check the Speed I just glance down for a few msecs and decide that the needle is about right. back up with the vision to see where I'm driving.
Cars all look the same because they're shaped by the same requirements. Decades ago we didn't care about passenger or pedestrian safety or mileage. When you design for those three plus a few others you inevitably end up with very similar solutions. Another factor is that due to the increased cost of designing a car you need to service a larger market which inevitably leads to common denominator designs. Exterior size and costs are tuned to service as many customers as possible.
The difference between 31 and 32 MPH on my analogue gauge is less than 1mm. Do you really think people can quickly assess a spacings like that as they glance down? To read my digital gauge I only have to register a couple of 3cm high digits. The analogue dial may be good for trends, but for following a precise speed to lock yourself to the speed limit, they are very unsatisfactory. I would really like to see some statistics for accident rates on roads with speed cameras. I suspect people are looking away from the road to check their speed far more often than they otherwise would, which has to be bad for safety.
Is a cop there going to give you a ticket for going 32 in a 30 zone? That would never happen here, unless they were really looking for an excuse to pull you over. Generally as long as you're not more than 5 over you won't get bothered so this is not really an issue. It's the old analog vs digital multimeter debate, digital is more precise, analog is typically better for relative and rate of change measurements. I don't mind digital speed indications but I prefer analog, not everyone does and that's fine.
Is a cop there going to give you a ticket for going 32 in a 30 zone?
Fortunately, speed limits almost always correspond to the graduations of the dial, so the "am I at the right speed" is basically "is the pointer on the mark", far easier to see and more useful than the numerical value.
Is a cop there going to give you a ticket for going 32 in a 30 zone? That would never happen here, unless they were really looking for an excuse to pull you over. Generally as long as you're not more than 5 over you won't get bothered so this is not really an issue. It's the old analog vs digital multimeter debate, digital is more precise, analog is typically better for relative and rate of change measurements. I don't mind digital speed indications but I prefer analog, not everyone does and that's fine.
I'm not so sure those actually are steppers. Old tech is still used because it works and you don't need to fix what isn't broken. It's a super high contrast display that won't fade and dead reliable. We'll see in about two decades how electronic displays fare but it'd surprise me if they turn out to be as reliable.
You won't see purely digital (numeric) critical gauges in aviation/aerospace as an example.
Dial gauges are superior where you need fast reaction to the value and the trend, and sunlight readability.
Segmented bar graphs have such low resolution that trends are hard to make out.
We don't have to speculate, given that the first (production) cars with digital dashboards are now over 40 years old! (The very first was in 1976.) I'm not a vintage car guy at all, so I actually don't know how they've held up, but in any event, this is an entirely knowable bit of information. Even if we just restrict it to graphical LCDs, we still already have cars over 20 years old.
I assume you're talking about the layout, not the technology? Cuz all-digital cockpits ("glass cockpits") have been around for a long time now. They just use graphical color displays to draw dials now.
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Both the resolution of analogue gages and the ability to spot trends on them is better which makes them more suitable for adhering to speed limits.
What trend? speed or tachy trend is driven by accelerator, if you're unable to detect your foot trend then the problem is not the cockpit.
My car have both analog style display and digital speedometer, I tend to look only at the digital one.
Instrument cluster software is interesting (some of my coworker work on it). It requires safety inspected code as when an alert is received, it must be displayed whatever the condition (ie, tire pressure alert, ECU error, ABS/ESP kick-in...). So they have to use fancy os like green hills and so on, while maintaining constant 30/60fps on the display...