Thursday, April 14

I've been driving since 1962 and it's time I brought up something that has been bugging me all that time.  Why, oh why, are most speedometers black with white writing?  I dimly remember driving one car where the face of the speedo was white and the writing black and I can recall it was so much easier to see.  Is there a reason why they're not all like that?

Signor Stefani Pasini, an ophthalmologist wrote: 

'The classic analogue instrument with black dial and white needle provides an optimized layout with an excellent contrast and unsurpassed overall readability. It is ergonomically sound, cheap to build and easy to illuminate by night.'

His argument is that it is difficult to effectively illuminate dials with a white background at night.  My response to Signor Pasini is  "Rubbish!" Most of our driving is done in the daytime and that is when there is more traffic on the roads and more chance of something going wrong. Perhaps Signor Perini is only used to the grey skies of Europe and his opinions are affected by that limitation.

In Australia we are lucky enough to live in a country where bright sunshine is the norm rather than the exception.  Typically, then, drivers have to wear sunglasses.  When you're wearing sunglasses, it's impossible to read your black-dialed speedometer to check that you're driving within the limit.  I find myself removing my glasses, blinking a couple of time to clear my vision before peering at the dial to see whether I am driving safely.  And, in fact, because of the rigmarole of removing glasses, blinking and so on, I'm not driving as safely as I might be.

Even on a dull day, it takes a couple of seconds for your eyes to adjust from looking into the distance to looking at something just 60cm away.  In those few seconds, the driver is not focused on what's important.

Maybe it's time someone invented a voice-activated speedometer. Like Alexa, the dim-witted person who voices my pointless Amazon device, it would have to be given a name.  It seems to me like a Kevin.  "Kevin, how fast am I going?"  "You're doing 97 Km/hr, sir, and driving as safely as if you were taking your mother to church."  I wonder if it would catch on.