Vehicular innovation. (Was: 2005 Echo - does it exist)

In article <Yjz3f.29483$ir4.19683@edtnps90>, Knotty <Knot@xxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 00:20:27 +0000, FanJet wrote:
>
> > Mark Schofield wrote:
> >> check this out
> >>
> >> http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/future/yaris.html
> >
> > Whatever happened to puting the instumentaion in front of the *driver*?
>
> For what reason? so it can be what you are used to?

Perhaps, but that's not a bad reason. In an emergency you're likely to
do what you're used to doing. If you're accustomed to finding the
instrumentation with a simple downward glance, having to look downward
and rightward will take longer.

The elevated cost of satisfying the opposing demands of left- and
right-hand drive dosn't justify making the instrumentation's location
unfamilar to both. Each car is driven by one person at a time, and the
driver shouldn't have to pay a penalty just because other countries
have different standards.

The Prius has unusual instrumentation and controls, but those
innovations don't involve the controls and data a driver needs
suddenly. The brake pedal, the accelerator, the steering wheel, the
speedometer, the horn -- those and other vital controls are where you'd
expect, and they function conventionally.

By arraying the gauges and alerts horizontally beneath the windscreen,
Toyota has made it easy to site the crucial readouts (speedometer, etc)
at one end or the other, placing them in front of either the lefthand
or righthand driver as needed. That's smart design.

And BTW when you look at those crucial readouts, you're not viewing
them directly. You're seeing their reflection in a 45-degree mirror.
Could Toyota be anticipating the day when those readouts will be part
of a head-up display system wherein the data appear to float in the
driver's field of view? That would require no looking downward at all,
merely a small refocusing of the eyes.

I suspect the Prius is a rolling testbed for Toyota's broader plans.

Brent
.

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