this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023
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Showerthoughts
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Everything digital in a car is often handled by the "entertainment" system. Like a glorified radio. Manufacturers like to keep that as separate system from the car, so it's replaceable and upgradable and fail safe from the actual operation of the car.
Also, many car designs (of the cars on the road today) are 20 years old, when digital screens in cars had yet to prove reliability. Nobody wanted to risk having to replace screens just to show the speed. Some brands have had digital speedometers for ten years or so.
Anyway, digital speedometers also calculate the speed by magnets, so the GPS and speedometer might still show different speeds depending on the size of wheels just as badly as an analogue one. Again, it has to, because the operation of a car should not be dependent on a satellite system, f.i. in tunnels.
So in short: Digital speedometers are not more accurate and they're introducing points of potential failure.
This is partly true, but regulations do allow for a computer screen digital version of the basic safety display, as long as it can be demonstrated to be reliable and work without other systems like the infotainment system, and many manufacturers have implemented this.
IMO I think the answer to the OP is "it was a stylistic choice"
Yes definitely, the choice of a mechanical arrow or digital display is optional and stylistic. I'm just explaining why the digital speedometers aren't better currently.
Like you say, the problem is that the reading of speed has to be done without secondary systems. The digital display does seem more precise because it shows an exact digit, but it's not really. It just shows a digit instead of a mechanical arrow, which is still electronic btw.
In order to make it more precise we'd need secondary systems to calculate the speed. It doesn't have to be GPS, it could be done by other sensory inputs. Modern cars have cameras and it wouldn't be difficult to make a proper calculation using those or something else.
I also wish I had a precise fuel gauge, but what's the point really. It's not possible to calculate a range anyway, because it depends on the future driving.
It's a "need to have" versus "nice to have". People who need to have a precise speed probably have secondary systems for that specifically.