What information are you given as an operator?

Much about automobiles has changed greatly over the past decade or two.  Part of it comes from different ideas of what the driver should be doing.

Our marine engineer bought his first car used, years ago.  He remembers it having more than the basic set of gauges, in fact including a tachometer, oil temperature and pressure (with units in degrees Faherenheit and psi), and battery charge/discharge.  (He insists that he’s remembering the car, and not confusing it with the extensive gauge boards for ships’ engines he worked with later.)  Most of these analog devices were marked, helpfully, with a yellow zone (meaning you should think seriously about taking some corrective action) and a red zone (meaning you should not be there).

Well, cars have a finite lifetime, and he found himself buying his third car new.  In place of all the engine gauges he remembered there was a single amber light, which illuminated when something was wrong.  Or might be wrong.  The owner’s manual listed a number of causes, some of which were more serious than others.  Talking to the dealer gave no more clarity.

It’s pretty certain that few drivers could interpret accurately all the information provided by the first set of gauges, even if they were inclined to pay attention to them.  It does, then, makes a certain kind of sense just to install one indicator with a simple on-or-off function.  But it marks a serious change in the function of the driver.  Instead of keeping track of the car’s operation, so that problems can be easily diagnosed and if possible avoided entirely, the driver is passive, waiting for an alarm.  It’s a step from being an operator to being a passenger.

Very recently our engineer rented a modern car.  There was a plethora of indicators available on the dashboard, including miles-per-gallon and low tire pressure.  (This last is really useful, though he still has to bring along a tire gauge to figure out which one is low, and monitor it as it’s brought up to pressure.)  But for the engine, there was still the single amber idiot light.  Much of the plethora of indicators had to do with navigation.  Most had to do with entertainment.

Of course, all the data he was used to, and much more, are being actively monitored.  But the information is sent to the car’s computer, to be used by serious professionals to maintain or repair the machine.  It’s not the driver’s role to know the details.  And cars are so complicted these days that few drivers can be expected to do any maintenance, even fewer than in years gone by.  But they still use oil under pressure for lubrication and water to cool the engine.  And getting some information early can help to head off a problem.

So it was years ago that, without much notice, the role of the car driver went from operating the machine to simply responding to an alarm.  Now navigation is all but automated, and it seems his or her major task is to be entertained: by satellite radio, recorded music or telephone calls.  It is not far now until everyone in a car will be a passenger.