Detroit, 11:47 PM
Tue Nov 24
23 posts in the last 24 hours
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| posts about #2009fordfusionhybrid more → |
Ford SmartGauge LCD Instrument Panel Brings Futuristic Look, Green Leaves To 2010 Hybrids |
Ford Fusion Hybrid Will NOT Debut At LA Auto Show |
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Jalopnik 
10/29/08
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Now the serious questions:
Can you see it in full sunlight or does it was out?
Is this cheaper to make/install than mechanical gauges?
Is there some inherent with the functioning of mechanical gauges?
Does it respond in real time?
Are the readings smoothly transitioning and stable, or does it vary everytime something changes by 0.0001 percent?
Are they just jealous of the Camaro?
And the real question:
Can I slap this into my Lagonda?
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Well, I know what I'm doing after work...
10/29/08
You could add lots of other apps, themes and change the fonts.
Imagine having to park your car to have a 'firmware' update.
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Stop 0x000000CE or DRIVER_UNLOADED_WITHOUT_CANCEL... - This Stop message indicates that a driver failed to cancel pending operations before exiting.
How about if your hungry or drunk.. does this show up?
Stop 0x0000009F or DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE - The Stop 0x9F message indicates that a driver is in an inconsistent or invalid power state.
What if your short and can't reach the pedals..
Stop 0x0000007B or INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
Does this display with an accident with public transport?
Stop 0x0000002E or DATA_BUS_ERROR
What if your a fashion merchant driving say.. the mustang..
Stop 0xC0000221 or STATUS_IMAGE_CHECKSUM_MISMATCH
The mind boggles.
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That's really cool and has a lot of potential. Could potentially be epically cool or a massive failure depending on execution.
They need to get the whole glare issue sorted out. I definitely don't want my gauges to disappear if it gets bright outside.
They need to make the interface spot-on and very configurable, like the GT-R's, but pretty.
They need to have provisions for upgrades/revisions. I could imagine different skins like Winamp or Firefox.
Lastly, they need to make the unit at least semi-easy to replace. My biggest aversion to today's Nav systems is what they'll look like 7-10 years from now.
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Where's the fucking tachometer?
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This is why, in 2004, you could get Bluetooth in the Prius and not much else under $80000.
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The Tach is right there in one of the images linked to in the above gallery. First vertical extension of the speedo.
I'm loving the potential for a truly flexible layout here. I've always wanted to be able to enable or disable components depending on my scenario. Why should my coolant temperature gauge take up the same amount of real estate if it's not actually displaying anything abnormal? Fuel could be enabled/disabled as needed or replaced with a more effective gauge for whatever current scenario exists. With this manner of display, a rotary or bar tach could be added in with ease. No reason to get all grumpy about it.
10/29/08
@sos10 votes NO on prop8: Again, my point. All this cool technology, and Ford puts it in a Hybrid.
@A strolling player, now with 100% more Studebaker!: But what about those of us who actually like cars and like technology too? Can't we have this display on, say, an Interceptor, with a 400hp V8? Instead of little friggin' leaves, it can have the Rock Meter from Guitar Hero. The more dinosaurs you send into the stratosphere, the closer you get to Rock God status.
(And for the record, those cheapshots at Hybrid drivers were specifically to poke fun at yourself and Al Navarro. I know full well not all Hybrid drivers hate cars, but I fully intend to keep lumping the two of you in with their stereotypes until you sell them and get yourselves proper V8 supercars. Al, if you're reading this, that means I want you to put a Corvette ZR1 engine in a Se7en.)
10/29/08
I agree with you, I absolutely adore this. Personally, I think they should have a big round LCD for the speedometer as well, because then they could easily adapt that display to show urgent information, like "You're going too fast for the photo radar booth ahead!"
I'm just grumpy about it because it's the sort of thing that would make me want a car, but they're putting it in cars I don't want.
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Seriously, why don't they hire Jalopnik to design cars? We'd get the US auto industry out of its slump in no time!
10/29/08
Plus we'd have them believing that we wanted diesel powered manual Ford LTD's and Chevy Caprices from the late 90s. As long as they had that Euro styling
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Or use the cheat code X, O, [], <, <, \/, O
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