Several production cars have a centre speedometer, Minis for one. I've seen digital centered dashtop speedos in other mass market cars too... I just can't recall them at the moment.
I have used a GPS speedo on my screenmounted device for years, and looking down and forwards for my speed seems unnatural now.
Which Prius? 2007 had it available in the deep well with a mirrored display over the steering wheel, not in the centre (http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/1f0271de306e45aab983f8c2c6e0f6ad/2...)
Later models had either that or a heads up display on the windshield.
Hunh, so I'm assuming then that the prius must have some changes there, or it's just not sold...
As I knew someone that owned a 2012 prius that has literally nothing behind the driver's wheel (along with my wife's old saturn, but I'm almost positive that wasn't sold in europe).
Actually now that i'm thinking about it, it seems about 30% of the cars in my life have had the main dash cluster in the center of the car!
> Hunh, so I'm assuming then that the prius must have some changes there
The Prius has an above-the-wheel driver display (source: I drive one, and have been in every generation of Prius sold in the US, and my wife drives a Prius C) in addition to the center console touchscreen.
It's higher, and nearer the centerline, than the old behind the wheel displays, but that is to allow your eyes to not come as far from the road in looking at it.
That's quite different (in a sense, diametrically opposed) from having the only display be a center-console touchscreen that isn't above the wheel.
Well to be completely honest the screen on the Model 3 [0] looks to be about the same height as the dash cluster on the Prius [1]. Or at least it's close enough that the shorter half of the population won't notice.
But again, either way I'm confident that Tesla is going to be within regulation. They are already getting so much scrutiny/bikeshedding about the center display, I can't imagine them not following the required laws. With so much attention on it, it'd be silly to have it all get fucked up by not having the screen positioned a few inches differently.
> Well to be completely honest the screen on the Model 3 [0] looks to be about the same height as the dash cluster on the Prius [1].
It's not a similar eyeline (it's maybe only a little lower, but also not as far back from the driver; you are looking down toward the wheel not at the road past the wheel to see that display.)
> But again, either way I'm confident that Tesla is going to be within regulation.
"Not in violation of the law" is a pretty low bar, but, yes, I'm quite sure anywhere they actually deliver the Model 3 it will probably clear that bar, at least for obvious things like display position.
> But again, either way I'm confident that Tesla is going to be within regulation. They are already getting so much scrutiny/bikeshedding about the center display, I can't imagine them not following the required laws. With so much attention on it, it'd be silly to have it all get fucked up by not having the screen positioned a few inches differently.
Considering Tesla has actually lobbied to a few European governments to change the law, it seems like they try to attack the problem from that side instead of actually fixing it on the hardware side.
The example shown has speedometer and other info on a display above the wheel and on the driver side, which is a driver display. Yes, it's near the centerline, but it's at a place the driver naturally can view it with a very small change in eyeliner from the road (or in peripheral vision while watching the road) not a centered display level with the wheel like the console display on the Model 3.
Tesla's don't have analogue displays.