So, at this moment, our own Mark Tucker, the man who cranks out Shitbox Showdown for your car-deciding pleasure every day, is in Tahiti. He may be on vacation? Or buying a crapload of adrenochrome from his adrenochrome guy? I’m not really sure, I wasn’t paying attention. What I do know is a bit of information that actually matters, and that bit of information is that he is driving a Peugeot 208. This is important because of a picture he sent us of the 208’s instrument cluster.
It’s a pretty normal-looking cluster, with an analog speedometer and tachometer flanking some non-dot-matrix digital gauges in the middle. That’s not the interesting part.
The interesting part is the way the needles on those two analog gauges move. Here, look at the picture he sent us:
Just to clarify, this is how the needles would move on this instrument cluster:
See that? The needles are counter-rotating, as opposed to moving in the same direction, like on most instrument clusters, say, like this 1980 Honda Accord, which has a remarkably clear and straightforward cluster:
So, when Mark showed this to us in Slack, it sparked a lot more visceral and intense reactions than I would have expected. I sort of think the motion might be cool, or interesting to watch; David, conversely, felt it was a nightmare, an abhorrent betrayal of everything positive and good.
Let’s just simulate the motion really quickly here. Here’s conventional, same-direction gauges:
Vroom, vroom! The tach and speedo needles are in synch, doing a little dance of engine and ground speed. Now, let’s see some counter-rotating needles:
This one is actually different than the Peugeot, with both needles going from inside-out as opposed to outside-in. Crap, do I have to make that gif now, too? Ugh, fiiiine:
So, I think these counter-rotating ones are fun to watch, or at least I don’t find them as morally repugnant as David does. Now, I can see an advantage to needles that move in the same direction being perhaps easier to watch and process at speed? But, despite my crude animations, the tach and speedo are not going to always be in sync or at the same pace, so how much does that actually matter? For the tach, you just need to be clear when you’re nearing the redline, really, and there are very likely some obvious audio cues that go with that.
I mean, some people must think these gauges are cool; after all, Aston Martin used them extensively in the early 2000s:
I’m sort of at a loss here: are these cool? Or is the more expected, synchronized approach just right? That’s why I’m coming to you, Autopians, the only people on this moist, gooey planet who have opinions that actually matter. So let’s take a poll!
Okay! Tell us what you think! And then maybe argue about it in the comments, because that’s fun. Try some ad hominem attacks! They’re a great time!
If I were to just be looking at them as a general indicator, I like the flow, but once the scales are included and I’m looking for a specific number, it’s an abomination.
They work, but only when the speedometer goes clockwise, the other way around is wrong.
According to Top Gear logic, Aston Martin did it, therefore it is cool.
I’m inclined to not like this but willing to reserve final judgment until I get some seat time in a car with them.
For the reason that clockwise movement indicates an increase in values/measurement I have to say I don’t like it.
I’m sure I’d get used to it but why try to make everyone accept that up is down?
I don’t have an angry reaction but it does bug me. That is some sort of nitpicky, OCD, designer shit.
I find myself thinking that a counter-clockwise tachometer would be okay, especially if the red area was very clear to see in my peripheral vision, but a counter-clockwise speedometer seems awful to me.
I felt the exact same looking at them.
To clarify: it’s a manual. The guy in front of us at the rental counter got all panicky because the agent tried to give him a manual, and “I SPECIFICALLY reserved an AUTOMATIC.” So when she asked me if I was okay with a manual, with him still in earshot, I replied with a loud, cheery “Yep!”
And it is gas. 1.2 liters of thrashy three-cylinder fury.
ND/Crackpipe…these are so horrible and should be outlawed…they don’t make any sense at all
In Australia, all the gauges turn backwards.
Jason left out the joke that led me to take the picture in the first place, that the tach goes the other way due to the coriolis effect.
Reminds me of the rotor and engine rpm gauges in some helicopters.
That said, the helicopters use the inside-out version, not the outside-in.
Inside-out could be easier to read at a glance as the needles are relatively close to each other (in ‘normal’ operation).
Outside-in is harder to read, unless one has the ability to look un-cross-eyed.
Maybe it’s just more inclusive. Semitic languages like Arabic and Hebrew are read right to left. Maybe ‘normal’ gauges look wrong to people who grew up as natives to those languages?
Nah, to account for that, all that would be needed would be for both needles to go backwards would be just both needles going counterclockwise. But they will still be going in the same direction.
Clocks go clockwise because that’s the way the Sun’s shadow goes on a sundial.
Instruments and gauges go clockwise because one – force of habit, and two – historically most instruments with dials were built by watchmakers / precision instruments makers.
Dials counter-rotating is needles going in opposite directions, which is simply counterintuitive, distracting, uninformative and ugly.
No inclusivity & writing systems here. Just plain tradition rooted in logic.