Never mind the torque: Count the knobs, dials and winking, blinking lights

At a time of minimalist chique, RAM has gone all out to infest its dashboard with as many controls and gauges as possible. (see photo above).

That is (count ‘em) 70 controls/indicators on the dash, and 15 on the steering wheel, 15 on the dash, and about 6 on the arm rest. That means more than 100 in front of you, 24/7, while you are driving.

Yes, I know this is an electric vehicle site! I am merely using the RAM 3500 as an example of over cluttered dashboards and celebrating Tesla’s minimalist position.

Will Tesla be able to sell the cybertruck if it doesn’t have a thousand gauges to tell you exactly how much torque you have at any given instant? Over a million pre orders says that it’s highly likely.

Driving the RAM is like your own mobile Christmas lights celebration.  One of my friends commented: This jigsaw is like a retro star wars Millennium falcon – WTH would I ever learn a fraction of these?  Not me, even intimidating, even humiliating and all this for $160,000.  Hmmmmm.

Two years ago, when I drove my Tesla out of the delivery centre in Fortitude Valley, I was worried about getting used to the display screen and looking down and to the left. Within 20 minutes I loved it. Now I find anything more just confusing eye static.

I wouldn’t know where to look and would find it information overload. Tesla has gotten rid of all of these distractions and given us the clean screen with necessary but minimalist display. A very classy and elegant clean up job.

I guess some car makers are like some tailors, never mind the length, feel the quality. Some European car makers are trying to make it easier for people to transition to electric vehicles by keeping the dashboards as similar as possible to their older models (the Corsa e by Vauxhall/ Opel is a good example).

To each his/her own – fashion/ design/ utility.

David Waterworth is a researcher and writer, a retired school teacher who continues to provoke thought through The Driven. He divides his time between looking after his grandchildren and trying to make sure they have a planet to live on. He owns 50 shares of Tesla.