Does Tesla Model 3 Need A HUD? (POLL)
Does the Tesla Model 3 need a HUD (heads-up display)? Or is the center-mounted tablet display enough to make up for the lack of a conventional instrument cluster behind the driving wheel?
Those questions provoked a lot of debate on our recent article discussing CEO Elon Musk’s tweets revealing that there would be no HUD (presumably, he’s just talking about at launch — though, that’s simply my personal guess). Some commentators said that they would cancel their reservation if they were stuck with just the center tablet display, some said that they didn’t care, some said they would buy an aftermarket HUD, etc.
Some of you might think this whole debate is ridiculous. Some of you might have strong opinions and might have made up your minds already. Some of you might wonder, what are the arguments for the center tablet display (without a HUD) being an adequate replacement for an instrument cluster? An interesting article on the subject was brought to our attention recently by “X-Auto” on the Tesla Motors Club forum, and it seems worth highlighting here before jumping into the poll — more to think about and visualize, at least.
The article references an experiment posted on YouTube by Alexandre Moleiro showing a docked Tablet PC in the center of the dashboard of a Fluence ZE while it was being driven at night. According to Moleiro, the display worked fine — though, I have to wonder how much of an issue glare during the sunny hours could be? (Presumably, Tesla has been working on angling and placement a lot so that this isn’t an issue, but who knows?) Before getting into the X-Auto ruminations, here’s that video for anyone who wants to watch it:
Here’s a bit more from the X-Auto coverage: “Check the image below I have edited to try explain the Model 3 center screen placement, doesn’t seem to be much of a visual distraction… The only argument that seems to be valid here is that the screen is not integrated like the S or the X but again it’s an economical EV. The above photo is from an older prototype but still then the speed display was placed in the top-left corner of the screen. In the new spy shots that Jalopnik released earlier this week the speedometer looks more intuitive to mimic the analog speedometer.”
“But these controls and screens have now changed since we have seen the Production Candidate Model 3 pics from Jalopnik. Below is a shot of the probable autopilot paparazzi shot. The new interface seems to have been worked hard on since the older version we have seen closely. It seems to now have moved from a simple interface to a more graphic representation of the elements.”
Looking at the pictures, it does seem as though the placement won’t be too much of an issue (or an issue at all) for many buyers, but I’ll note here that I would still prefer an instrument cluster. What do you think?
And now, your thoughts:
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