Speedometer is helping with driving, doesn't actually have any meaningful point except if want to drive on the edge of the speed limit. Everybody can feel the difference between 30mph and 50mph. Or 50mph and 70mph. If one doesn't, one shouldn't drive.
I don't know about this. I used to drive around a beat Chevy pickup and the driver displays would randomly crap out. It's a little scary driving blind and when navigating back roads and highways; you lose track of what speed "feels" like and I'd imagine most people would be a terrible judge of speed. I mean, that's why we have speedometers in the first place, right?
A blanket statement like "you don't need a speedometer because you should know how fast you're going" is patently ridiculous.
If one needs radio control to drive the vehicle, then it's a mental problem. Use smartphone and headphones as a backup.
If you need AP to drive the car, then you don't actually have driving license (plausible in future, not now).
Point is when your central display is broken, or engine, or motor, or your current vehicle's speedo, you don't just ignore that and drive for weeks. You fix it ASAP. And having radio controls available while your Model S Speedo LCD has been smashed, doesn't actually help with speed monitoring. Having Model S's main display smashed and having speedo fully functional doesn't actually help with seat heater controls.
Philosophy is actually the other way around: one device for everything means minimal amount of stuff to go wrong. And having
it out of the dash might mean replacing it (if something goes wrong) might take less than 10 minutes.
And actually, AP and radio can be controlled with steering wheel buttons/stalks: no need to have any visual feedback.
I dunno man, your argument is a lot of "if it breaks, use your phone as backup". Point is, it shouldn't break. Nobody who drives a car ever thinks about these displays and readouts breaking. It just doesn't happen. The fact that this is now a concern in the car of the future is concerning in itself. And telling people to suck it up and deal with failure by pulling out your tiny smartphone and fidgeting with apps to restore functionality while hurtling down the highway at 70mph is even more absurd. What if I don't have a smartphone? Flip phones are still a thing. My car should be more reliable than my damn phone.
Philosophy is actually the other way around: one device for everything means minimal amount of stuff to go wrong. And having
it out of the dash might mean replacing it (if something goes wrong) might take less than 10 minutes.
Most people never expect to have to fix or replace their dash controls. It really doesn't happen that often. Most people will never experience this in the life of their car. Are you suggesting Tesla is anticipating egregious screen failure and is making it easy to repair? It's not just the ease of repair, it's the time out of your day. The drive, the waiting, the hassle. Nobody wants to do that, no matter how quick the repair is.
And one can argue that having the screen on a stalk will make it easier to break in addition to being easy to repair. A well-designed control panel should never break in the life of the car and now you're giving it another failure point in your quest to make something that should never break more easy to repair. It doesn't make sense.
RE: your philosophy: sure, fewer moving parts means less chance of things going wrong, but when you reduce your moving parts to 1, any failure is catastrophic failure. If my Model S center screen breaks, at least I have a second screen to retain vital driving information until I can schedule the repair. If my single Model 3 screen breaks, well butter my biscuit and call me toast, I'm SOL and driving blind. I wonder if the car will even let you drive if it detects the screen is dead?
