Virtual Cockpit with Google Earth mapping

Too much information?

I found myself behind the wheel of a big, expensive German SUV the other day, and very nice it was, too. Especially once I had shrugged aside my notion of it assaulting me with information from every direction.

The instrument cluster, as well as feeding me with vital statistics pertaining to speed, engine revs and sundry other aspects of vehicle condition, had so much more to offer – whether I wanted it or not. With the full 3-D map set to occupy much of the cluster, It also showed me the size of back garden of each property I passed, and whether it had a pool or not, as well as a constant reminder of the age and copyright details of the aerial photography displayed.

No doubt, had I dived into the menus, I could have set it to be less elaborate, but not without parking up to consult the manual. “Too much information!”, I howled, hysterically, before checking myself with a harsh dose of reality: “I’m old and irrelevant. What do I know?”. Yeah. What do I know?

At the ripe old age of 38, I’m well and truly aware of how the world has overtaken me, and a recent trip to the pub underlined just how outmoded I’ve become. Drinking with friends, I was challenged to a game of chess by their eight-year old daughter. Fine, I said; I hadn’t actually played since I was fifteen or so, but I figured that my recollection of the rules would be enough to bluff my way through a game against a child.

Inevitably, the scale of my defeat came as quite a shock. I was quite simply pulverised. Not only did she understand the rules with such clarity that you’d think she written them, but clearly had an infinite number of subsequent moves stored in her RAM, ready to be deployed after every nervous manoeuvre I made.

My embarrassment ebbed away, though when I factored in just how much the world has changed since I was her age. Yes, this was a particularly bright little girl, but she was born into a world where stimulation, information and influence is more abundant than ever before. Chess might become a near obsession to one child, Minecraft or Fortnite for others; each presenting the same goal of victory over their peers, and the status or reward it brings.

In every one of those forms of entertainment, there’s a whole lot of stuff going on. Winning depends on how deeply you understand what you’re doing, so participation becomes instinctive rather than reactive. When I played chess, I was playing reactively, and my young opponent must have recognised my utter lack of strategy.

Anybody with a mind agile enough to assimilate the many rules of chess is at a natural advantage when it comes to dealing with a busy flow of information. I grew up on sideways-scrolling platform games and then three-dimensional racing simulators, and was consequently better able to deal with complexities such as programming the VCR or signing up to up AOL dial-up than my less technologically cultured parents. But, over the course of time, I too have been leapfrogged.

When dashboards were dashboards

It strikes me that the ergonomic principles that I held dear in the course of failing to become a car designer, are no longer relevant. Until recently I almost felt insulted that clear, simple dials and instinctively placed controls have been swept aside by ever more complex touchscreens and graphical instrument clusters with more going on than a team meeting in a beehive. The millennials, or younger, who designed these machines and will doubtless end up on crippling finance plans to buy them, expect such sensory assaults 24/7. And the latest generation of toddlers, who play on iPads rather than with Fisher-Price, and exploratively prod the television expecting the screen to be touch sensitive, will even more so.

I’m a millennial myself, just, and consider myself proficient at using the technology that has become all-pervading in every facet of life, but keenly remember when stepping into a car was to retreat from all that. The trip home from work used to be a blissful half hour of living off-grid, with no calls, no blinking lights and no one-touch access to unlimited media impatient to suck me in.

For me, never has Saab’s ‘night panel’ button, enabling you to vanish every display you don’t need for safe driving after dark, seemed such a good idea. But as we’ve established; at 38, I’m old, irrelevant and better off left in the past.

[Images courtesy Audi.co.uk, Lego.com and Chris Haining / Hooniverse 2019 respectively]

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25 responses to “Too much information?”

  1. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    The Saab night panel button was the first thing that came to mind for me too. Maybe one day authorities will deal with the increasing sources of distraction, but until then there will be more accidents caused.

    1. Rover 1 Avatar
      Rover 1

      My first Rover P6 had a black panel display.
      When the alternator I had swapped in to replace the original dynamo failed, it blew all the instrument lights.
      Voila. Black panel!

      And welcome back Rusty.

    2. Rover 1 Avatar
      Rover 1

      My first Rover P6 had a black panel display.
      When the alternator I had swapped in to replace the original dynamo failed, it blew all the instrument lights.
      Voila. Black panel!

      And welcome back Rusty.

      1. outback_ute Avatar
        outback_ute

        Ha, not quite the same thing. Should I refrain from mentioning the ‘L’ word?

        On night drives on quiet country roads, as in almost zero other traffic, I have sometimes put a sheet of paper over the instruments leaving just the top of the speedo showing, to reduce internal cabin light (in the absence of a dial to dim everything).

        1. Rover 1 Avatar
          Rover 1

          No ‘L’ word. The original was a Lucas part, the alternator that blew was an 80 amp Mitsubishi alternator, which I’d put in to run my 600 W headlights on main beam.

          1. outback_ute Avatar
            outback_ute

            Transplant rejection? Also did 600w include auxiliary lights?

          2. Rover 1 Avatar
            Rover 1

            Yes 4 x 100W + 2 x 100W

        2. Troggy Avatar
          Troggy

          I’ve had to place tape over the high beam indicator on my bike for this reason. Why Honda decided to use a high beam indicator that is so bright that it destroys your night vision – on a motorbike no less – is anybody’s guess.

  2. JayP Avatar
    JayP

    That’s the market.
    And one of the reasons I had a tough time finding a reasonable new car that is made to drive, not entertain.
    If I need directions – Waze.
    Just gimme the basics and get out of my way. I’m driving.

    1. outback_ute Avatar
      outback_ute

      There is something to be said for having 2 or 3 turns’ info showing depending on how close they are instead of just the very next, and a depiction of what lanes on the road are doing at complex intersections, but nothing like what has been described!

  3. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    Funny, I’ve just had this discussion with my wife. I complained that the Leaf doesn’t provide more specific info and stats than it does, to which she replied she can neither find the menue nor follow the info provided that I use to have up – while driving. We’re both sociologists, and very much interested in data, but the amount of available attention used when driving has always been different between us.

    What I don’t get with the “maps first”-focus and the amount of space it takes in modern car menues is that most driving surely does happen in repetitive patterns. How often do you need a map over a commute you’ve done a gazillion times?

    Priorities in general tend to be a bit funny (maybe a worthwhile Encyclopedia Hoonatica?): The Leaf uses 1/3 of its prime info real estate to display a virtual tree being build while driving. On wednesday, I completed one for the first time ever on my 23 km long commute (due to a 3 km delivery detour):
    https://i.ibb.co/VD9wvBV/IMG-20190518-083825.jpg
    It’s probably intended to keep your driving style EV-y, but I’ve already found that my wife has totally eclipsed and ignored that bit of info. And, yes, as a numbers guy, the time-and-temperature-combo above provides me with intense pleasure.

    1. outback_ute Avatar
      outback_ute

      Some EV displays are well into distraction territory, almost a video game.

      1. Tiller188 Avatar
        Tiller188

        I’d always assumed that was part of the reason for those layouts, actually — “gamifying” the driving experience to encourage a lighter foot and more-economical driving. For fear of distraction, I’m not a fan, but I can attest to the effectiveness of providing some kind of incremental progress tracking and logging for encouraging a particular behavior (I use an app to keep track of my workouts and keep me on plan, and it’s great/really helps prevent screwing around in the gym), so I guess I could see why it would be adopted.

        1. outback_ute Avatar
          outback_ute

          I always found a team environment the best for training/gym. And screwing around the best way to injure myself.

    2. Scoutdude Avatar
      Scoutdude

      I use navigation almost every day when I’m going to and from my gig in the city, though mainly when coming home. Heading home there are 3 different places I get on one of two different freeways and some of those on ramps have 2 or 3 different routes to get to them. Then once I do make it to one of those freeways there are 4 different paths home. So yeah when I’m walking out I pull up google maps and find out which way is currently fastest, apply a little knowledge of how the traffic patterns are likely to play out over the next 30-60 minutes which is how long it will take me to the point where it is free and clear for the last portion. Going in depending on whether I’m coming from home or my other gig also has a number of options and depending on the traffic on a given day, as well as what I’m driving means that I’m pulling out the phone and finding the fastest route and possibly making a call to let people know when I’ll be there.

      Yes my car does have built in Nav but live traffic requires a couple of subscriptions, so the phone it is.

      1. Sjalabais Avatar
        Sjalabais

        Huh, yes, that does make sense indeed. Do you sync phone and car or does all that navigating happen on the phone exclusively?

        1. Scoutdude Avatar
          Scoutdude

          Unfortunately it is all on my phone as the car doesn’t have Android Auto to mirror my phone. Sure If I’m listening to music from my phone it will tell me the directions over the car’s speakers. But the fact is I understand I’m an unusual case with so many different routes that are that close in time. If I stay late enough for the traffic to have ended they are usually 2-3 minutes difference.

          1. outback_ute Avatar
            outback_ute

            I often do a quick check on Google maps to see which route is quickest too at the start of a trip during the day, there are regularly significant fluctuations (1/3 trip time) that are worth knowing about.

    3. SeattleCurmudgeon Avatar
      SeattleCurmudgeon

      Still a fan of analog- especially for the radio volume.
      Regarding the tree graphic: trees require co2, which the Leaf is designed to not emit. Just sayin…

      1. Sjalabais Avatar
        Sjalabais

        Ha, valid point! Analog everything, if I was to decide, but I have never purchased a new car. No power to pursuade OEMs at all…

  4. SlowJoeCrow Avatar
    SlowJoeCrow

    Having the navigation right in front of the driver instead of the center stack sort of makes sense, although I’d worry about target fixation. I think car displays need to be a bit more like the “glass cockpit” in military aircraft where you need to simultaneously present a lot of information while maintaining situational awareness. Something more attack helicopter than stealth bomber since Apaches and Hinds do most of their work in visual range with lots of obstacles instead of 8 miles high

  5. Scoutdude Avatar
    Scoutdude

    Looking closer at the ICP above I noticed that the fuel pump icon and arrow are lined up presumably to suggest to fill at 1/4 tank. I’m guessing that arrow does double duty and the filler is on the side the arrow is pointing to.

  6. Zentropy Avatar
    Zentropy

    My wife is enamored with the dash display and functions in her Q5, and keeps urging me to drive when we take her car so I can appreciate it. I don’t. I prefer analog gauges, and only those that are necessary (speedo, tach, fuel, temperature, oil pressure, and voltage). My ADHD is tough enough to manage without more shiny distractions.

  7. Troggy Avatar
    Troggy

    I can handle a busy display when it’s purely information. Sometimes I want my Touareg to show more, not less. For example I’d like to see my fuel range and digital speed on the same screen without having to navigate menus to get from one to the other. I’d also like the option to see more gauges and engine readouts on the centre screen.

    Maps on the other hand I cannot stand. I find myself staring at the screen for far too long before looking back at the road. I usually have google maps running on my phone which is usually face-down, and I am perfectly happy with the voice commands alone. On the motorbike I have a Sena bluetooth on my helmet, and the phone lives in the topbox.

    1. Zentropy Avatar
      Zentropy

      Interesting. You and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum.
      Digital speedometers drive me nuts. Every flickering digit change may as well be naked breasts flashing up on the screen, for what it does to distract me from driving. I’m a visual, not literal, thinker, so dials and symbols suit me better than numbers, words, and sounds. Which makes fuel range an unnecessary redundant metric, given that a basic fuel gauge gives me the same information in a glance. I can typically look at a route before traveling and keep a good mental map of where I’m going without GPS, but when I use it, the displayed image is so slow to change that it doesn’t bother me. The vocal GPS instructions, though– which my wife insists upon when she’s in the car– I cannot tolerate. I’d rather miss a turn than listen to that maddening chatter.