A recent thread poked at manual gear boxes and their pending demise.

a similar thought hit me this morning as I watched this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...6wSWmKKc#t=28s

Manufacturers are all replacing gauges with "soft" programmable LCD displays.
real gauges are being relegated to the dustbin. and right beside them are discrete switches for things.

want to turn up the interior temperature? it used to be turn that knob there...
now it's goto main menu, select operator environment, select the climate control window pulldown, select driver side temperature and adjust and return to main menu.

did you remember to keep your eyes on the traffic ahead?

 

In another couple/few years, the gov't will step in and mandate that you can talk to your car to do that.... all in the name of keeping us safe!

 

I like being able to quickly adjust the temp by turning a knob.

 

And I thought that my BMW was over the top. I see Mercedes has mastered "Advanced Gimickry" too.

I miss having a full set of real gauges. A car should have, at the very least, a tachometer, a speedometer, a water temperature gauge, an oil pressure gauge, a volt meter or ammeter and a fuel gauge. Lots of switches and knobs too.

I love all the virtual stuff on my computer and phone, but a car really should have real things.

 

I like the LCD gauges, especially if it's fully customizable. As far as a knob for HVAC... As long as I don't have to go through a menu and can adjust the auto-climate with a button, or a knob, I don't mind all the additional crap. It'd be nice for some of the newer cars of the future to allow you to add sensors and program the display to show what gauges you want (similar to what PLX has been doing for years). After having a car with lots of gauges, I'd prefer to have everything on the main cluster. I only installed one gauge on my S2000 and I can flip through whatever I want via OBD and additional sensors I have plugged into it.

 

I hadn't thought about OBDII but there really isn't a need for the magic cable to external device to be able to read codes if you have that much intelligent display area.

of course that doesn't mean that won't continue to use it to make you go back to the dealer for service.

 

Unfortnately, as traffic congestion gets worse over the years, it will take the pure joy out of driving and relegate the car to "just an appliance" for many. An appliance to get from point A to point B with the least amount of effort or inconvenience. Hence the Google driverless car that is only a matter of years away. Short of driving our S's on back country roads I guess that this technology will keep us Vintage folks on the road past the years that we should have perhaps surrendered our licenses.