OT: Digital Speedometer

[Tricky Dicky]

My latest car has a screen instead of the traditional instrument binnacle, so far so good. It displays all the information in the main fairly easily to read. It also displays your speed digitally which at first I thought was quite a good idea. However, having driven it a bit I am finding that keeping the speed steady is quite difficult unlike a traditional needle display speedo. The digital speed can flip a couple of m.p.h. above or below the required speed unlike a traditional type which was easier to keep steady. Now this could be down to traditional speedos having a slight hysteresis hence less reactive whilst the digital types are more reactive, I would be interested if anyone else has experience of this? The other thing is this is my first automatic and is this something to do with the speed variations, at least I have got out of the habit of reaching for the non-existent gear stick.

Richard

[Dave Liquorice]

1 mph change on a numeric display is obvious. 1 mph change on a needle based rotary display with marks every 5mph at most is far harder to judge.

My car has both, the numeric is handy for setting the cruise speed or an absolute check (in 40 zone what am I doing?). I drive using the rotary needle display, part of that comes from being able to see the angle of the needle in my peripheral vision so don't have to actually look at it.

[Andy Burns]

My car is also a full LCD dashboard, can have various layouts/sizes of display, but mostly the digital speedo readout is quite prominent within the traditional dial/pointer speedo

Also an automatic, and have no problem keeping to constant speeds, without using speed limiter or cruise control.

[nothanks]

When I first had a digital speedo (Espace) it felt odd because I was always chasing a specific speed when Cruise wasn't engaged - but I quickly got used to it. The current car (MB C350e) has a digital speedo on one screen but retains an analogue speedo - whenever I'm using that screen for something other than speed it feels very odd and inaccurate to drive on the analogue speedo. Most of us learn and adapt quite quickly - sadly, SWMBO seems to be an exception :-( I've had autos for years. They're much better in almost every situation, but especially in heavy traffic. I remember that the most worrying thing at the start was driving slowly towards a wall and thinking that it might suddenly accelerate.

[Adrian Caspersz]

My first auto drive was in an empty car park.

A short application of 'if in doubt, both feet out' resulted in me banging my nose on the steering wheel, followed by the horn sounding.

Luckily, no one saw that to laugh.

I wouldn't go back to owning a manual now.

[alan_m]

My car has both and I find that I never look at the analogue dial these days. Does it really matter if your speed is varying by a few mph. You should really be looking at the road rather than fixating on the speedo.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Precisely the reason why all aircraft have in the main analogue dials for critical stuff

Its a lot easier to see e.g. an altimeter unwinding, than work out from a blur of figures in a display, whether you are falling out of the sky, or about to reach the moon.

If some one tried to sell me a car without at least analogue speed display, I simply wouldn't buy it

[Tim Lamb]

Cue head up dashboard display!

>

[JohnP]

Adrian Caspersz [e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

When I first drove an Auto I took someone's advice to tuck my left foot

- as near as possible under the seat! It worked for me.

I now have a hybrid and think it is great - not so much because it is hybrid - but because the "Power Split" device causes it to drive like and automatic. Pulling away is always done withthe motor as there is no fluid coupling. Very seamless.

[Bob Eager]

The worst one I had was a Rover 3.5 that I had to collect from a customer, when I worked in a garage.

It was automatic. The driver had a semi paralysed right leg, so the accelerator had been moved to the left of the brake pedal.

Actually, I managed OK. Parked it nose it to a wall where we used to leave cars prior to service.

The manager came to move it to the service bay. Smashed it straight into the wall.

[Peter Johnson]

It won't be long before your needs will only be met by the second hand market then.

[Jeff Layman]

Nor would I. I've been driving an auto for over 26 years. I decided to change when I worked out that on my drive to work (about 6 miles, and lots of stop-start traffic) in 16 years I'd changed gear more than a million times.

Now I'm even fussier - the first two were "standard" four-speed autos. Then I changed to a Jazz with CVT. I wouldn't go back. Not that I'd have to now with cars being electric.

[Fredxx]

Given some displays are simply screens on the dash, I'm sure the app market will come along and cater for dinosaurs who can't drive a car without an analogue speedo.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

It happens that Tricky Dicky formulated :

My car has two digital and one conventional analogue. The digitals can dither about plus or minus one count, when running close to the next count, it is part of the digital process - but it doesn't wonder about. Maybe it is your unsteady throttle control?

I'm back on a manual, but have had autos - you do eventually get used to not pressing the none existent clutch and reaching for the gears tick. I found it helped a little, to actually use the stick to select the gear I wanted at first, rather than leaving it in D.

I did have a little bother changing back to manual, almost forgetting to press the clutch at first :-)

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Dave Liquorice was thinking very hard :

That is what I mainly use the digital displays for, setting an accurate, legal cruise speed. The analogue reads a few mph high of true speed, both of my digital displays agree and are accurate, genuine speeds.

[Dave Plowman (News]

Makes far more sense to learn how to left foot brake. I did, and doesn't present problems when moving back to a manual. It might do if you have two identical cars - one manual one auto, though.

[Dave Plowman (News]

You need to try a modern auto - CVTs are now rather rare. I have a 7 speed twin clutch type - no torque convertor so as efficient as a manual, fuel wise.

[Dave Plowman (News]

My car has both. ;-)

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

It happens that JohnP formulated :

It pays to learn right for go, left for stop - despite at first expecting to use similar pressure as used for the clutch, but it soon passes. For a temporary swap to auto, I would tuck my left out of the way. One auto I had (Granada) worked well using left or right foot for both, to give the right a rest on a long journey.

[Dave Plowman (News]

I've always thought it poor design if it doesn't generally use the correct gear. As with everything, some autos weren't well designed. Or more likely not well 'programmed' for the actual car they were in.