RE: Time for Tea? All hail the digital dash!

[Dave Hedgehog]

hussein said:

Also,



Mercedes S-Class and CL! Were these not the first to have an actual fully configurable TFT Screen?

Edited by hussein on Wednesday 15th August 12:00

they need to let people write there own skins for that, would be brilliant

[RacingPete]

Well, if you have a digital dash you must eat 80's food types too...



Though as I do look at this daily, I would say that an analogue display is far easier to glance at - though they are both easy to read. BUT when driving I don't want to read, I want to have something that is in the corner of my eye (or at a glance) that shows roughly what speed I am doing. Analogue achieves that far better.

[peterperkins]

Gen 1 Honda Insight introduced in 1999

[Pixelpeep]

I had a B Reg astra GTE 1.8 - i think the first of the Mk2 shape.. that dash....

[thehardman07]

V6GTA said:

GeeTeaEye said:

I spent my early years on the Tomy Turnin' Turbo Dashboard driving simulator of 1983!

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/361591/the-top-ten...

Jesus I had one of these!

Had one too! Actually had the BMX flyer electronic game that I lent to a friend which he duly lost/broke. He replaced it with one of these, a crudely simple thing but was hours of fun for a young petrolhead!




BMX flyer game for reference

[Bucketeer]

That's where Ferrari and others got the stupid idea from that filling a steering wheel up with buttons is a good idea.

[garypotter]

May have been mentioned before the Lexus Soaure dash was awesome looked like you were looking down a well at the numbers (In the 4.0 version i drove)

Also any dash with the dials in the middle is fookin carp idea - mini etal

[Leins]

1988 Alpina vent gauge:




2012 Alpina vent gauge:

[WolfieV8]

I am surprised nobody has mentioned the Toyota Soarer.
this is my view>>>

i kinda miss analog dials though.

[droopsnoot]

405dogvan said:

We're entering a brave new world with dashes tho - what I can never figure out is why cars are always so far behind the curve with this stuff. My smartphone has some amazing data realisation/touch interface Apps - wheras cars have something which feels like early Flash - at best.

You're right, but the issue is reliability and trust - if the app on your phone or PC crashes, it's not the end of the world, you just re-start it, whereas on a car it's a bit more of an issue.

[bertie]

droopsnoot said:

405dogvan said:

We're entering a brave new world with dashes tho - what I can never figure out is why cars are always so far behind the curve with this stuff. My smartphone has some amazing data realisation/touch interface Apps - wheras cars have something which feels like early Flash - at best.

You're right, but the issue is reliability and trust - if the app on your phone or PC crashes, it's not the end of the world, you just re-start it, whereas on a car it's a bit more of an issue.

Correct.

That's why instrument clusters can't run on Windows etc, there are strict regulations about boot up time, reliability and stability.

[zedx19]

I had one of these as a company car few years back, digital screens all over the place, was like Blackpool illuminations at night!

[djdestiny]

Alanok said:

Not exactly vintage digital but the dashboard of the current Civic Type-R is a nice example of at first glance a mess but in actual fact very intuitive to use after a while.

Its digital at all though is it!
I HATED driving my mum's Type S when she had it, horrible horrible car with no go at all and a dash board full of randomly shaped and positioned buttons and switches

[KIG1971]

It's sad that cars we thought we futuristic new, now look so dated because they have digital dashes.

I even include the "Knight 2000" in that comment as well.

I have a 10V Audi Quattro and love it, but when I get in the drivers seat the digi-dash is nostalgic not futuristic.

[ZesPak]

Skater12 said:

ZesPak said:

This thread is incomplete without this:



But these must be photoshopped, as they are working.

Would that be a Lagonda ?

As you can see in the name of the second picture .

Late '70s though so predates just about anything on this thread!

[Triumph Man]

Pixelpeep said:

I had a B Reg astra GTE 1.8 - i think the first of the Mk2 shape.. that dash....

Makes me chuckle how manufacturer's go to the trouble of designing a digital dash, then give it an old style drum odometer!

On another note, in my opinion, dashboards that are digital, but look like traditional analogue gauges i.e. the Range Rover/S-class/XJ above look terrible. In that scenario, what is wrong with proper gauges?

Most of what has been posted looks cool though

[ZesPak]

Triumph Man said:

On another note, in my opinion, dashboards that are digital, but look like traditional analogue gauges i.e. the Range Rover/S-class/XJ above look terrible. In that scenario, what is wrong with proper gauges?

Most of what has been posted looks cool though

Hmm, infinite customisability? This can range from colours to indications, to just about anything.

Imagine it has a small GPS arrow in the centre between the dials, like you see on many cars, but then when you approach an intersection it expands over the tachometer so you see the full map there.

Also, trip meters are easy for manufacturers considering MPG, L/100km, KM/L, US MPG, on digital speedometer that also applies. Hell, you could set your speed to m/sec or even "impuls power" if you want.
Similar for the Tach, while different engines would need different dashes, all could have the same dash, and even match it to fit the interior without any extra cost.

Edited by ZesPak on Thursday 16th August 12:23

[TheTurbonator]

If anyone is still interested in this, just thought I'd bring it to attention that the site has been updated and some new pictures have been added.

[krunchkin]

I've had my s2000 for 2 months now and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the digital dash. I know that when I first test drove it my first thought was "yuk - horribly old fashioned and nasty orange colour", but over time I've come to appreciate the clarity of the speed and revs, and the perfect positioning through the wheel that mean it can be seen from the corner of the eye whilst cranking it up through the gears. I guess now I quite like it in a retro way but I would still like to be able to change the colour from that ugly orange (there is actually a US kit company that sell kits to do just this - but it looks bloody fiddly). In an ideal world I think I would prefer it blue, or white, and with the rev indicator changing a different colour when VTEC KICKS IN YO! etc.

[CarCluster]

If I manage to get up to 80085 MPH in my Twingo, with the speedo say "BOOBS"?