The 1986 Oldsmobile Incas Dashboard (2020)

Post by neilv » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 1:16 PM UTC

phs318u wrote: post #46

I love this!!! As a non-American, let me say never has a brand name been so out of sync with a car design. That thing is anything but an "Old"-smobile. Looking at it I also thought how cool it would be if the dash were entirely modular a-la Framework laptops. "Standard" electrical, electronic and mechanical interfaces to which modders could fit all sorts of weird and wonderful interfaces. And I mean the whole physica…

Post by sandworm101 » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 1:35 PM UTC

rob74 wrote: post #50

486sx33 wrote: post #41

Steering wheel is wild But those kind of dashboard gauges did make it to production. 80s digital dashes from GM were actually super cool. They have a few failure points but there are still some guys restoring them . I retrofitted the S10 model into an S10 blazer in high school and owned a factor Camaro with one. The S10 one was like driving a space ship at the time. Here’s some cool examples https://drivemag.com/red-…

I'm not even sure I would call that a steering wheel, it's more of a yoke (like the ones used in planes). It was kind of ahead of its time, because more and more controls have moved to the steering wheel in recent decades, but if this appeared in a real car I would be afraid of accidentally pressing a button when I just want to turn the wheel. Also, I'm not a pilot but I think an airplane yoke is optimized for small…

Post by WarOnPrivacy » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 1:44 PM UTC

sandworm101 wrote: post #63

rob74 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not even sure I would call that a steering wheel, it's more of a yoke (like the ones used in planes). It was kind of ahead of its time, because more and more controls have moved to the steering wheel in recent decades, but if this appeared in a real car I would be afraid of accidentally pressing a button when I just want to turn the wheel. Also, I'm not a pilot but I think an airplane yoke is optimized for small…

>> airplane yoke is optimized for small but precise inputs It's the opposite. Full left-right deflection on an airplane yoke is about 1/4 of a rotation, a movement measured in inches. Full deflection of car steering wheel is multiple rotations, a movement measured in feet. Car steering requires much more precision than aircraft. The yoke is optimized for rapid full-deflection with minimal control input. Fine control…

Post by foobarian » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 1:51 PM UTC

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #65

sandworm101 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> airplane yoke is optimized for small but precise inputs It's the opposite. Full left-right deflection on an airplane yoke is about 1/4 of a rotation, a movement measured in inches. Full deflection of car steering wheel is multiple rotations, a movement measured in feet. Car steering requires much more precision than aircraft. The yoke is optimized for rapid full-deflection with minimal control input. Fine control…

> Car steering requires much more precision than aircraft. This seems counterintuitive to me. I associate more movement (of the controller) with less precision.

Post by jccc » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 2:31 PM UTC

kube-system wrote: post #62

jccc wrote: post #22

This headline would be much less effective if it told you the truth, that the car never existed: “Unfortunately for us, Oldsmobile never went ahead and produced the Incas. They made a slew of other wild concept cars as well, but none of those saw the light of day either […]”

The car absolutely did exist, just not in great numbers. The article even has photographic proof of its existence. Concept vehicles like this are typically built one-off and showcased at manufacturer auto shows. Some of them later go into mass production, and some of them don't.