100%.
There's no way it's easy to figure out you're going 67 mph on an analogue screen vs a digital.
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Model 3 Center Display
- Thread starter C141medic
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There's no way it's easy to figure out you're going 67 mph on an analogue screen vs a digital.
Nor with a digital one. We need to separate precision from accuracy here. I've never had a car speedometer, either analog or digital, that compared exactly to the highway mile markings (nor an external GPS-based instrument). They are all off by a mile or two per hour, depending on tire pressure, wear, temperature, etc. So, reading an in-dash digital display that tells me I'm going 65.0 miles per hour is misleading at best. Even though it appears to be precise, it is in fact no more accurate than glancing at an analog speedometer and seeing the needle hovering about half-way between the 60 and 70 mph markings.
JeffK
Well-Known Member
Ignoring the accuracy of the actual display. There's the accuracy of the reading of that display that's at question. With analog and to your point, you'd be doubly inaccurate.
As far as precision, with an analog you're likely seeing 2 or 5 mph segments whereas with digital it goes in 1 mph increments.
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Waiting4M3
Active Member
I heard that there is a game controller inside the glove box, and passengers can actually play game on the screen, and that Tesla are in secret talks with one or more major gaming console companies. Also it has a "selfie" camera, and people who've rode in the back seat confirmed that it works well as a vanity mirror.
This isn't true. You are stacking inaccuracy and imprecision this way. With a digital gauge you have a precise readout of the inaccurate speedometer. With analog you have an imprecise reading of the inaccurate speedometer.
The fact that neither are spot on is irrelevant. If you want to know a number, you want digital. If you want to see how something is changing over time, analog is better.
On this, we agree!
Now, to throw another (final?) wrinkle (ok, deflection) into all this... Does anyone know if the current Tesla speedometers are driven by wheel rotation or GPS inputs? My Roadster has three independent readouts (analog speedo, digital readout in the car's VDS, and another one in the in-dash Nav unit. I believe the analog one is driven by tire rotation (it seems the least accurate of the three), and the others are GPS-based. I often find that none of the three agree! The two digital ones appear to have different round-off algorithms (one rounds, one truncates); who knows what the analog one's problem is. What about the Model S/X?
A man with a watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never quite sure...
Great, then digital is better. You shouldn't be staring at the speedometer watching for the needle to move.
If you want a number, then sure, go digital. But we also agree that the actual value isn't important here. When driving down the road, I want to be able to quickly determine my approximate speed. For this purpose, I still submit that I need to stare at an analog display less than a digital one. On that, we may need to agree to disagree.
CarlitoDoc
Member
Yes, but usability engineering is all about asking the right question. "How fast am I going?" is different than asking "Am I speeding?". The later is probably what you are really after, and may be easier to determine in a quick glance with an analog display than a digital one.
But back to the purpose of this thread, we started this slight diversion when talking about the usability of the center positioning of what is traditionally something buried behind the steering wheel. Besides speed, what about the other common things? I'm thinking about the turn signal indicators, for example... Unless they are widely separated, as they are in a traditional instrument cluster, they may not be easy to see out of the corner of your eye. (Counter argument, before anyone posts, is that the number of cars driving with them stuck on suggests that the traditional instrument display is ineffective anyway...)
Not that turn signal indicators themselves are all that important. Rather, what sorts of usability design is implied by Elon saying the vehicle speed display change by relevance?
JeffK
Well-Known Member
Depends how Tesla implements the opacity thing. It might be as easy as seeing a color or shade of color.
Of course the actual value is important. That the number is super accurate is not. And it cannot possible take less time to read a number off a gauge, figure out how far away from that number you are, and make an approximation in your head than it would be to read two digits.
JeffK
Well-Known Member
One would think you'd be reading the label on the tick mark in addition to determining the position of the needle...
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I should probably just let this thread die, but what the heck...
My Model X replaced a 2001 Porsche 911. The Porsche had an analog speedo with a tick mark every 5 MPH and a label every 20 MPH or so. And it was off to the left quite a bit. It was hard (and slow) to read. I had to find the needle position, count down the number of tick marks, read a nearby label, do the math, and interpolate within the tick marks to get something like 1 MPH precision. I already knew it was 3 to 4 MPH off, depending on speed, so a correction for that too. I hated it.
I always used the digital readout in the center of the instrument cluster. Really easy, just read the number, though I still had to correct it. But, the display Porsche used kind of ghosted old with new numbers (the segments changed slowly and with segment persistence), so you couldn't really make sense of it while accelerating. A good analog speedo would have been nice for those cases, but RPM's and gear worked in a pinch, and the analog tach was nice.
My wife's 2009 Mini has the giant center-mount analog speedo. I never use it either because I can get a digital speed readout centered over the steering wheel. That one works great, no blurring. Hopefully this car will be replaced with a Model 3. I like the center screen so far, I think it will be practical.
The Model X display is very readable as well. Much better than the Porsche it replaced. But I'm still having a problem quickly accelerating to a precise speed without gear changes, an analog tach, and engine sounds to guide me. I am having fun working on it. An analog speedo would be nice for that, but I wouldn't waste the real estate on it in the X.
So, something analog would be nice when accelerating/decelerating but for simple cruising speed maintenance I like the digital display best. I don't mind losing the analog display and wouldn't buy a car for daily use without a digital display.
My Model X replaced a 2001 Porsche 911. The Porsche had an analog speedo with a tick mark every 5 MPH and a label every 20 MPH or so. And it was off to the left quite a bit. It was hard (and slow) to read. I had to find the needle position, count down the number of tick marks, read a nearby label, do the math, and interpolate within the tick marks to get something like 1 MPH precision. I already knew it was 3 to 4 MPH off, depending on speed, so a correction for that too. I hated it.
I always used the digital readout in the center of the instrument cluster. Really easy, just read the number, though I still had to correct it. But, the display Porsche used kind of ghosted old with new numbers (the segments changed slowly and with segment persistence), so you couldn't really make sense of it while accelerating. A good analog speedo would have been nice for those cases, but RPM's and gear worked in a pinch, and the analog tach was nice.
My wife's 2009 Mini has the giant center-mount analog speedo. I never use it either because I can get a digital speed readout centered over the steering wheel. That one works great, no blurring. Hopefully this car will be replaced with a Model 3. I like the center screen so far, I think it will be practical.
The Model X display is very readable as well. Much better than the Porsche it replaced. But I'm still having a problem quickly accelerating to a precise speed without gear changes, an analog tach, and engine sounds to guide me. I am having fun working on it. An analog speedo would be nice for that, but I wouldn't waste the real estate on it in the X.
So, something analog would be nice when accelerating/decelerating but for simple cruising speed maintenance I like the digital display best. I don't mind losing the analog display and wouldn't buy a car for daily use without a digital display.
I'm surprised that after hundreds of posts on TMC nobody has admitted that they drive with one right hand at about 11o'clock like me. And NOT at 10 and 2.
I picked up the bad habit when driving tractor on the farm in my teen years.
But what it means is that I can never see what is behind my steering wheel, spedometer included. My arm covers it.
So I'm really looking forward to this model3. My hand/arm won't be in the way of anything at all anymore.
I picked up the bad habit when driving tractor on the farm in my teen years.
But what it means is that I can never see what is behind my steering wheel, spedometer included. My arm covers it.
So I'm really looking forward to this model3. My hand/arm won't be in the way of anything at all anymore.
