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Old 11-10-2010, 10:36 AM   #5 (permalink)
bennelson
EV test pilot
 
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Oconomowoc, WI, USA
Posts: 4,435

Electric Cycle - '81 Kawasaki KZ440
90 day: 334.6 mpg (US)

S10 - '95 Chevy S10
90 day: 30.48 mpg (US)

Electro-Metro - '96 Ben Nelson's "Electro-Metro"
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I've never been a fan of digital read outs for speed.

The problem with them is that a person's brain needs to translate the icon to a number and then calculate if that is an appropriate number or not. Also, you have to look more "directly" at the number to comprehend it.

With an analog dial, it is much easier to view with periphial vision. Analog gauges allow you to view a number COMPARED to other numbers. You just look to see where the needle is and can judge relatively. As in "ooh! it's way over on the right - that's too fast"

On a digital display, it takes a moment to comprehend the difference between 68 mph and 98 mph.

I'm also surprised how on my truck, the speedometer goes to 100 mph. The max speed limit in the state is 65mph. The speeds I trpically want to travel are right in the middle of the dial. Which sort of makes it look like there's nothing wrong with doubling your speeds!

Didn't US Federal law used to mandate that speedometers couldn't go over 85 mph? I thought I heard once that in the movie BACK TO THE FUTURE, they really had to mess with the car to make the speedometer display 88 mph, because it was never designed to!?

Anyways, when driving around last night. I think I was driving 5 mph slower than I usually would because I still wanted some "headroom" on the gauge. Essentially, I lowered the range of my speedometer from 0-100 to 0-62.
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