Feb 7: Instrument panel confusion

There it was staring up at me from my dashboard display. Oops, I meant instrument panel (showing your age again, BWT?). Everywhere I looked in my owners' panel drew a blank, but surely that little yellow circle couldn't be a good sign? Then tucked away somewhere on page 3825 of my rather comprehensive manual, I saw a note of explanation of this little yellow beacon. It was a weather indicator. A what? You know, it indicates the weather. When it was sunny, it was yellow, at night it was dark grey, when it was cloudy it showed a sun with clouds, when it was overcast it was all clouds and one day, it showed clouds with a lightening bolt. Give me strength. Of all the useless info to have when I'm driving, is an instrument panel icon informing me of the weather, I could see by simply  looking out the window or thru the sunroof. But, hey folks that's what it has come to.

Wonder how many other somewhat interesting icons there are..........

Hope and pray they all don't come on at once. If they do, I suggest you take cover.

Yes, I know, technology is a good thing and I sure don't have any problem with that, although I'm not so sure I need to be able to change the colour of the car in my display to any one of the many shades available, but I can if I want to in my Maxima. But there is info that is terrific, such as the low tire pressure warning system........

Remember the not so long ago days, when you were notified via a dash board light, that one of your tires had low air pressure? Sure you do, but the better displays now show you which one it is and the exact pressure in all the tires. Now that is good intel. Out of curiosity, what vehicle has tire pressures shown in the display above (no prize for the correct answer)?

Technology can be perplexing. I read somewhere recently that most owners of the new techie vehicles, end up knowing about 25% of what their instrument panel display can conjure up. That sounds about right. On my last car, I was nearing the end of its lease, when I found that by touching a certain icon, I could replay the last song or the last newscast or whatever. Neat feature, never used it, even when I knew it was there. How many people would?

What about all those cameras, which we now have to aid in parking? Great idea and with mine I can amaze onlookers by parallel parking to within an inch of the other cars. I love the surround view camera, like shown below, but can't figure out how they get those great overhead views. Where the heck is it?

All I ask it to make the info useful and if you can't make it useful, make it really big, like this info screen for the Tesla X.......

Credit to Tesla, this screen is like a small TV and has the best graphics I've ever seen in a car or suv or whatever (that would be the Tesla X). Something to look at, while your supposedly autonomous vehicle mows down pedestrians and other annoying impediments, as it drives you to work. I told you technology was great. And speaking of Tesla, this display on an S can tell you when Elon Musk is calling to make sure all is a-ok........

But get over the interesting and useful stuff and let's see the real rocket science........

When you are driving along and this is in front of you, do you know what you are looking at? Maybe a bit too complicated? Well, I'm here to tell you, that with the rarity and price of the car within which this display resides, it is nothing for 99.99% of us to worry about. Let those billionaires have their fun and be confused while doing it.

There was time when this is what presented itself to you, when you sat behind the wheel.......

This fount of knowledge let you know your speed, engine temperature and maybe a couple of other minor bits. Straightforward and quite typical for its time. Everyone know exactly what they had in front of them. Great, eh? Sure for its day, but even if some of today's info might be unnecessary or unknown to the driver, this is the wheel I'd much prefer to be behind......

Even if the info I receive might be a touch disturbing at times.......

Until next time.........