Great, another damned electronic screen where none is needed. Added content is crap, people. This is another component that is easily shopped out to an overseas fabricator.
Maybe it saves weight - great, but how much? Versus how much added complexity? When these electronics break down, can you crack them open and fix them? No. You hog them out, and stick in a whole new one. FAIL.
How long before some enterprising anarchist, with time on his hands and a way to hack into your wireless-equipped electronic instrument panel, manages to upload a virus that somehow completely fubars your display? Can't do that to my rides without a screwdriver, and anybody getting close to my cars with a tool is either me, or has me chasing his ass down.
I'm a strong believer in things that can be repaired when they break down. As a former curmudgeonly coworker used to say, "maintenance-free" just means that when it stops working, it can't be fixed. I tend to agree.
I'm no Luddite but analog gauges work fine for me. "Hal, open the boot. Hal?" I'm not as worried about drivers being distracted because they're already busy with cell phones and apparently never even look at their speedometer...or rear view mirror...or side view mirror...
A few things- yeah, it does look kinda busy. And letting people organize their own cluster could just become a clusterf$@k of a disaster. Then again, SYNC seems to be doing much better than I imagined.
The digital Instrument Panel has been done before, but obviously, tech has improved. And if you've been thinking about doing this for the last few years... well, designers have been wanting to do it for at least 20. Just a matter of cost and again, tech.
As for the redline, as someone pointed out- it's a hybrid. You're not supposed to be redlining it. And I doubt it's got a manual. I've always driven an automatic (not by choice) and I can't tell you the last time I actually looked at the tach. I'm guessing most won't even have it on there.
A nice first step. Hope it works, because that allows us to design much more interesting dashboards.
@sos10 votes NO on prop8: the gas engine isn't always running and the electric motor isn't always used, also the system will tell you how much you'd have to let off the gas to go into all EV mode (which goes all the way up to 47 MPH now) so for the hardcore supermiling nerd, the twin power output setup is data manna from heaven.
The idea is great. It is headed toward the glass cockpit seen on most newer airplanes. I wish they would have hired better graphics people. Efficiency leaves? I would rather see an oil temperature gauge or a battery health assessment. Realizing that this is on a Mercury, I will not ask for a g-force meter or lap counter.
@joshman: Talking with the engineers, it became pretty apparent they wanted to do what you're talking about, but the customers in the "hybrid" demo guided them towards this. Keep in mind too that you can go hard nerd and get an efficiency graph of the last 60 minutes of driving in histogram form.
I would have liked something more hardcore too, but i have an engineer mind, not a customer mind.
Also, the hybrid systems Ford has in field in limo fleets are pushing over 350k miles now without a single battery cell failure, so i don't think battery health is a huge issue.
I had the electronic digital dash on my '88 Lincoln Continental... It was okay, but when the backlight bulbs (yes, incandescent-with-filament bulbs) burned out, the entire instrument panel had to be disassembled to change the bulb.
I also had to get used to knowing when to turn on my headlights; the dash was so easy to read night or day that in the city I would often forget to turn the headlights on when night fell.
efficiency leaves? seriously? now, what i really want is a gauge that has a squirrel that does a handstand when my fly is down. or maybe one that displays a Flaming Homer when a Pinto-derived vehicle drives by.
I hope there's more to it than what was gone over in the video. A lot of those fancy graphics are going to feel very annoying after the first week or so.
Even a Prius has a better set of economy/fuel/state of charge displays.
My 17 year old car has a much better economy display: dynamic bar graph for instantaneous fuel use; static numeric display for overall fuel economy; static display for miles until empty.
The bar tachometer is awful. No yellow or red line for the tach? FAIL.
Putting the Battery charge level gauge on the opposite side as the gas gauge is also terrible.
Coolant temperature gauge without actual temperatures? Not so great.
@The-Simpsons-Rule!!: I hope so, the nerd side of me would enjoy looking at a pointlessly massive amount of gauges as I tool around in my Mustang, pretending to be a secret agent.
I'd make those efficiency leaves look like a nuclear winter.
@fodder650: My god, I had forgotten about Carmageddon. I still have Carpocalypse Now! kicking around somewhere. I wonder if it will actually run on my MacMini.
@pegasus_: Yes, a 'firmware' update could lead to a 'hardware' update. Parking is not mandatory, but highly recommended. Caution should be taken to ensure avoidance of 'offspring' virus.
10/30/08
Maybe it saves weight - great, but how much? Versus how much added complexity? When these electronics break down, can you crack them open and fix them? No. You hog them out, and stick in a whole new one. FAIL.
How long before some enterprising anarchist, with time on his hands and a way to hack into your wireless-equipped electronic instrument panel, manages to upload a virus that somehow completely fubars your display? Can't do that to my rides without a screwdriver, and anybody getting close to my cars with a tool is either me, or has me chasing his ass down.
I'm a strong believer in things that can be repaired when they break down. As a former curmudgeonly coworker used to say, "maintenance-free" just means that when it stops working, it can't be fixed. I tend to agree.
10/30/08
I'm not as worried about drivers being distracted because they're already busy with cell phones and apparently never even look at their speedometer...or rear view mirror...or side view mirror...
10/29/08
The digital Instrument Panel has been done before, but obviously, tech has improved. And if you've been thinking about doing this for the last few years... well, designers have been wanting to do it for at least 20. Just a matter of cost and again, tech.
As for the redline, as someone pointed out- it's a hybrid. You're not supposed to be redlining it. And I doubt it's got a manual. I've always driven an automatic (not by choice) and I can't tell you the last time I actually looked at the tach. I'm guessing most won't even have it on there.
A nice first step. Hope it works, because that allows us to design much more interesting dashboards.
10/29/08
10/29/08
10/29/08
10/29/08
10/29/08
I would have liked something more hardcore too, but i have an engineer mind, not a customer mind.
Also, the hybrid systems Ford has in field in limo fleets are pushing over 350k miles now without a single battery cell failure, so i don't think battery health is a huge issue.
10/29/08
I also had to get used to knowing when to turn on my headlights; the dash was so easy to read night or day that in the city I would often forget to turn the headlights on when night fell.
10/29/08
10/29/08
Even a Prius has a better set of economy/fuel/state of charge displays.
My 17 year old car has a much better economy display: dynamic bar graph for instantaneous fuel use; static numeric display for overall fuel economy; static display for miles until empty.
The bar tachometer is awful. No yellow or red line for the tach? FAIL.
Putting the Battery charge level gauge on the opposite side as the gas gauge is also terrible.
Coolant temperature gauge without actual temperatures? Not so great.
10/29/08
One can only dream.
10/29/08
10/29/08
I'd make those efficiency leaves look like a nuclear winter.
10/29/08
10/29/08
10/29/08
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?
10/29/08
10/29/08
10/29/08
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.
10/29/08
10/29/08