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Author	Topic: Are vehicle dashboards well engineered and are they informative?	Post a Reply Back to Topics

Titanic1985 Champion Author South Carolina Posts:6,260 Points:358,155 Joined:Dec 2010	Message Posted: May 13, 2012 1:05:11 PM Ignore Titanic1985 Report Abuse Dashboards over the past decades have been constantly changing. Some are analog and have guages, some are digital substituting guages with graphics and others are a combination of both. There physical location has also being moved or divided into multiple areas of the vehicle. Do you feel the placement of the guages and controls are suited to your needs, safety and is the information provided adequate, inadequate, or more than required?

Titanic1985

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South Carolina

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Message Posted: May 13, 2012 1:05:11 PM

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Dashboards over the past decades have been constantly changing. Some are analog and have guages, some are digital substituting guages with graphics and others are a combination of both. There physical location has also being moved or divided into multiple areas of the vehicle.

Do you feel the placement of the guages and controls are suited to your needs, safety and is the information provided adequate, inadequate, or more than required?

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Titanic1985 Champion Author South Carolina Posts:6,260 Points:358,155 Joined:Dec 2010	Message Posted: May 14, 2012 1:50:36 PM Ignore Titanic1985 Report Abuse Wow, I woke up this morning and it was like GBs have been busy drafting some really terrific posts. Thank you. I'd like to make a comment or two, if I may. Baron62nd. I'm in your camp about knowing more about my vehicle. Do you remember the rage of people putting Stewart-Warner guages in their cars in the 1960's? Today's vehicles don't display important readings such as oil pressure in PSI or engine temperature in degrees. Yes, I would prefer valid information on my guages and not idiot lights. You also slipped in a comment similiar to OceanArchers & yoududebc when you said "easily enough". If the information is "menu's deep" and, as in my case you have to reach to the center of the dash to find the correct button (my Chevy has three) to obtain the information, that is a driver distraction. Hello tagorgia. I also like the tire pressure display via TPMS and use it every time I first drive the vehicle. My issue there is that only two wheels are displayed at a time and only when you depress one of three buttons multiple times. Having a topic on TPMS, many vehicles only show an orange light when the pressure is low leaving you to guess which tire it is. So, having the actual pressures is a plus. I only use it when the vehicle is stopped. Hello yoududbc. You brought up a number of issues. The one that hit me was the Yaris center mounted dash. I was thinking of the Saturn Ion which had the same arrangement. I want the information directly in front of me. The only reason I can see for this layout is global cars where some countries have left drive and others have right drive. It is easier to "flip the guage cluster" in a different direction than move it across the entire dashboard. Does anyone have any other reason? I know I would not buy either vehicle (Saturn is now gone) with that arrangement. You also mentioned guage color and dash backlighting. Some Dodge RAM trucks have the black letters on a white dial. I agree white on black is more visible. The backlighting color is important. In the military, night vision is enhanced by red lights (e.g. submarines). Pontiac (remember them?) used to have red backlighting in some of their cars. You also mention symetry, equal sized guages and positioned in an orderly manner. I too like that. Back in 1976, a friend had a Ford Elite with the digital speedometer. I remember that was for upscale vehicles, now they are appearing on vehicles like the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic. That used to be an issue about how fast do you display the numbers (e.g. during acceleration and deceleration). I drove that Elite for two weeks and it drove me crazy on cruise control. It would change back & forth between 55 & 56 MPH. Another driver distraction. This is a bit off topic, but there are lessons to be learned. When NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart their first indication was a temperature increase in the wheelwell while Houston Control was seeing failures in the sensors, etc. Of course the crew couldn't do anything about an earlier warning of impending doom, but it does bring up your points of how much information is enough or too much. Thanks again for your inputs :-) .
yodudebc Champion Author Vancouver Posts:5,594 Points:543,825 Joined:Aug 2011	Message Posted: May 14, 2012 9:22:00 AM Ignore yodudebc Report Abuse I like the display and placement on my Corolla: pretty traditional with a few added features. Speedo, tach, both analog and of equal size, both clearly visible. Fuel and temp gauges. Idiot lights for oil pressure, tire pressure, battery. Odo & trip meters under the speedo. Outside temp, fuel consumption, average speed, range, clock under the tach, though only one of these is visible at a time. So no worries. But what makes me nuts is the cluster on the Yaris. Gee willikers. Display is in the centre of the dash, not in line with the steering wheel. It's counter-intuitive and potentially dangerous. When my Corolla is in the shop for regular service, the loaner is a Yaris and I never take it far. I test drove a number of cars with digital speedos and I don't like them; the analog dial gives you more information at a glance. White on black seems to be best, although amber on black works well at night.
WEPSMAN Champion Author South Dakota Posts:10,513 Points:2,023,925 Joined:Mar 2005	Message Posted: May 14, 2012 9:18:41 AM Ignore WEPSMAN Report Abuse I like how my truck is set up. I have seen better, but I have seen some that are too busy and distract the driver.
tagorgia Champion Author Arizona Posts:3,022 Points:2,815,320 Joined:Aug 2004	Message Posted: May 14, 2012 8:19:15 AM Ignore tagorgia Report Abuse I like being able to see tire pressure by just looking at the dash, also the readings are very accurate
Baron62nd Champion Author Illinois Posts:7,019 Points:1,670,285 Joined:Sep 2007	Message Posted: May 14, 2012 8:17:57 AM Ignore Baron62nd Report Abuse My complaint is that my car doesn't give me enough information easily enough. The potential is there with the computer system, but the computer display only makes one piece of data available at a time. Granted, most drivers don't care what is going on with their systems as long as the engine stays running and there is gas in the tank, but I like to monitor more than that. (I had a Peterbilt with 17 gauges.)
OceanArcher Champion Author Mississippi Posts:5,708 Points:1,328,375 Joined:May 2004	Message Posted: May 14, 2012 8:06:09 AM Ignore OceanArcher Report Abuse Some vehicles have "dabbled" in the use of "heads-up" displays, which might be good for some, but would only confuse others. Confusion we don't need on today's highways - it's bad enough already
probedude2 Champion Author Akron Posts:12,553 Points:2,380,205 Joined:Jun 2003	Message Posted: May 13, 2012 11:59:12 PM Ignore probedude2 Report Abuse yes?
Titanic1985 Champion Author South Carolina Posts:6,260 Points:358,155 Joined:Dec 2010	Message Posted: May 13, 2012 4:51:31 PM Ignore Titanic1985 Report Abuse Hello Pugpal. You used a word which I deleted when drafting my Topic, that being ergonomics. Simply stated it is how well something is designed for human use. In December we had a discussion on this forum about an undocumented dash light staying on and only one person realized it was a European symbol for a brake system failure in an GM van! On the surface, egornomics doesn't seem to be a big issue, but as you have stated "due diligence" is a priority. Thank you for your comments -- great as usual :-).
Pugpal Champion Author Toronto Posts:2,061 Points:39,745 Joined:Jul 2005	Message Posted: May 13, 2012 2:23:09 PM Ignore Pugpal Report Abuse Ergonomics are very high on my list of priorities and a simple "sit test" is one of the first steps in my due diligence process for buying a new car. Most cars don't pass the grade; poor sight lines and badly laid out dashboards and controls do most of them in.
bluenvoy Champion Author Nashville Posts:14,969 Points:1,875,915 Joined:Oct 2005	Message Posted: May 13, 2012 2:07:07 PM Ignore bluenvoy Report Abuse All gages are electronic/digital now even if they look like an analog/cable gage. My vehicles gages are well laid out with good electronics backing them up.