Pilot dashboard for driving at night

[widodh]

Something I came up with while watching some pictures of the Model S dashboard.

When I'm driving at night I try to turn down the light in my car as much as possible, that makes visibility better.

Something that is used in aviation (correct Lloyd?) is the highlighting of important data and disabling data which doesn't matter at that moment.

I think Saab implemented this in their cars, they would only illuminate that part of the speedo where the needle is. Why light the whole speedo when just your speed is important.

Why light up the oil/coolant temp when they are inside normal values?

This way you take away unnecessary information input to the driver.

I don't expect this to be in the Model S from launch, but since it's a computer rendered screen it would be possible to implement the same.

This way you could have a minimalistic HUD with only displaying what you need, for example: Why show me my SoC when I have more range then my navigation destination is set to?

What do you think?

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Excellent idea, wido! Could help keep sleeping kids that way as well...

 

[dsm363]

They already have a night mode for the 17" screen I thought.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

They already have a night mode for the 17" screen I thought.

Wido's suggesting taking it one step further, Dave, short of turning all displays off.

 

[bonnie]

I like Widoh's idea - only display information necessary for driving and notifications of any problem you should be aware of. And coupled with night mode, that will be very little light in the cabin. Perfect for driving.

 

[J in MN]

And, if you want to take the aviation theme even further, then the night displays should be all red. The Ford Mustang (and possibly other Fords too) have the option of selecting various colours, including just red, for the displays.

 

[vfx]

I actually liked the nite mode in the day.

 

[MikeK]

And, if you want to take the aviation theme even further, then the night displays should be all red. The Ford Mustang (and possibly other Fords too) have the option of selecting various colours, including just red, for the displays.

Not all aviation displays are red at night. A lot of people use soft green or blue EL illumination for analog instruments, or just dim digital displays for newer glass cockpits.

 

[widodh]

And, if you want to take the aviation theme even further, then the night displays should be all red. The Ford Mustang (and possibly other Fords too) have the option of selecting various colours, including just red, for the displays.

The nice thing about having LCD displays in the car is that Tesla could make various themes.

* Night Red
* Night Blue
* Night Green

It would be a lot of work, but they potentially do this, I'd say that is very cool.

Now, this pilot dashboard is something that just popped up, but it could work I think.

Don't show the volume of the stereo unless you hit the + or - button, show the volume for a couple of seconds and dim it again.

 

[dsm363]

Sounds like a great idea. Something they could implement in the future since it should be able to be done in software.

 

[digitaltim]

Isn't orange supposed to be THE nighttime color for instrument panels?

 

[Lloyd]

Isn't orange supposed to be THE nighttime color for instrument panels?

Red is the color that does not cause your pupil to constrict and thus preserves your night vision when transitioning to outside. A pilot thing, but not as important for drivers of autos as other cars headlights will cause your pupils to constrict.

 

[Doug_G]

Red is the color that does not cause your pupil to constrict and thus preserves your night vision when transitioning to outside. A pilot thing, but not as important for drivers of autos as other cars headlights will cause your pupils to constrict.

Actually, it's not about pupil size. It's about pigment in the rods and cones. In darkness your retina cells pump out more pigment to make themselves more light-sensitive, and bright light causes the pigment to be reduced. The night vision rods aren't sensitive to deep red, so using red lights up your red-sensitive cones yet preserves your night vision.

Orange is a compromise color. It affects your night vision slightly, but is easier to read than red.

 

[AndyM]

Sounds like a great idea. Something they could implement in the future since it should be able to be done in software.

Good idea! In fact, what about offering different skins/themes for the display? Not this year. obviously.
I wonder how many full-time positions Tesla has just to track feature requests from the field?

 

[KBF]

I really like these ideas. I often drive on low-traffic highways at night and so the better my night vision is maintained, the more I can see deer and other crazy animals. "Themes", of course, are perfect for Tesla's system and once the major production tweaking is finished I think we'll see a lot of this.

 

[GSP]

SAAB's "Night Panel" mode works very much like widodh describes. Everything is dark except the speedo. If gas gets low, or RPMs get high, the appropriate gauge lights up until the problem is corrected. Same thing for the other gauges, like engine temperature. If you adjust the HVAC or radio, it will light up until a few seconds afterward.

It would be a great feature for Tesla or other cars.

GSP

 

[jerry33]

SAAB's "Night Panel" mode works very much like widodh describes. Everything is dark except the speedo. If gas gets low, or RPMs get high, the appropriate gauge lights up until the problem is corrected. Same thing for the other gauges, like engine temperature. If you adjust the HVAC or radio, it will light up until a few seconds afterward.

It would be a great feature for Tesla or other cars.

Sounds great. However, I would hope that what is displayed is configurable so I can have the items that are important to me displayed (for example, I spend very little time looking at the speedometer compared to looking at ignition timing in my current car).

 

[Robert.Boston]

True -- some might consider the energy indicator to be essential, while others, not.

 

[widodh]

True -- some might consider the energy indicator to be essential, while others, not.

Sure, it's software That's the cool thing about Model S!

IF Tesla would bring out such a "theme" for Model S it wouldn't be that hard to make it configurable what is always visible and what not.

* SoC: On/Off
* Speedo: On/Off
* Range: On/Off
* Outside temp: On/Off
* Stereo volume: On/Off
* What's playing: On/Off
* Cover art: On/Off
* etc
* etc

 

[SCW-Greg]

Brilliant idea. Seems like a no brainer.