Obviously I've mentioned this before, but I found the best digital display to be the 'tunnel vision' one in the Yartis and Yaris derivatives, because, for me at least, the speed is displayed at the same focal distance as the road ahead so I don't ahve to refocus to read it. BMW seems to have acknowledged the illegibility of its old fashioned dials by installing head up displays that do the same job as the Yaris by projecting speed digitally onto the windscreen. The Citroen C4 digital display is so clear ity can be read by drivers being overtaken by C4s. Unfortunately marketing pressures sometimes discriminate against the 'best' systems when research 'focus groups' come out against digital displays.

HJ

I prefer digital displays for legibility reasons: I can't read anything easily - 30 mph signs seem a blur but digital displays are great .

Can't think of anything worse than large digital figures rising and falling all the time!

Agreed. A digital readout is fine when displaying the magnitude of a constant or near-constant value such as fuel level or engine temperature. With a continuously, perhaps rapidly, changing number on a screen representing revs or road speed for example it is difficult to judge the rate of change of the value, whereas the sweep speed of a needle in perfect for this.

Edited by AlanGowdy on 24/06/2010 at 18:47

30 mph signs a blur? I wish there was more "30 blur" ! How many times do we get caught - almost - at the start of a 30 zone where there is just one sign (which you may not spot because of a plethora of other signs, eyes looking out for young pedestrians, and a host of other parts of the scenery) and then no more signs after that "because it's got street lights, see, so you don't need them..."

Returning to instrument dials - what do BRers think of my idea of colour-coded speedometers - some kind of back lighting changing to yellow at 35, orange at 65 , red at 75, whatever... it occurs to me that a flash of colour just outside the immediate line of vision, clearly visible but not distracting, would serve as a much more useful speed reminder than constantly having to glance down. Intensity of the lighting and speed increments could be user-set as required.

Check out aircraft cockpits - most instruments have black backgrounds.Aircraft manufacturers have spent milloions on researching this topic.

Aircraft manufacturers have actually spent millions on replacing instruments with screens AKA the 'glass cockpit'.

Which have black backgrounds and highlight the information, not the background.

I think you will find that modern glass coskpits are in fact digital representations of analogue instruments.

The speed and altitude are of a rolling "ticker tape" disign and engine instruments look like standard analogue guages.

As has been said elsewhere, this is becuase it is easier to spot a developing situation by spotting changes in dials and also the rate at which they change, much easier than looking at just numbers.