Pillar of wisdom
Will the problem of monitoring speed at the wheel always be with us? One of the big difficulties is that the driver must keep his eyes on the road, but the speedometer dial is usually out of his line of sight. if the driver is to watch his speed then his eyes must change focus from distant objects and be distracted from the traffic environment. Keeping an eye on road speed automatically creates a traffic hazard. An effective solution would be to have a speed read-out within the driver’s line of vision, Perhaps adjacent to the windshield pillar. if a GPS system can be smart enough to determine speed and to sound an alarm if a car exceeds the prevailing limit, indicating road speed on a digital display ought to be easy. It would save points on a lot of driving licences.
D.T., Walkinqton
The Toyota Prius already has a digital speed read-out at the base of its windscreen, while the BMW 5-series and Citroen C6 can have optional head-up displays projected on to the glass. Some UK-market Cadillacs and the Corvette C6-fiave this as standard. Once you have driven a car with a head-up display, you never look down at the instruments. Also, anyone can buy a Cyclops that gives true speed by GPS far more accurately than any speedometer and can be positioned in your line of sight.