The future 35 years ago - the digital speedometer
Rainer Buchmann, founder of bb, was looking far into the future when he showed his digital dashboard for the first time at the IAA in 1979. Speed, engine speed, fuel level, etc. could be read off digitally, accurate to the kilometer or revolution.
Today, in 2015, this is old hat, but back then there were many discussions about whether an analog display with a pointer could be read faster and better than a number, which you first have to process intellectually.
Well, people back then probably couldn't have imagined that 35 years later, fines would already be due for speeding at 3 km/h and therefore a digital speedometer would soon become the most essential monitoring instrument in the car.
Rainer Buchmann developed the digital dashboard (dinfo) not only because he wanted to display information in a new way and control devices or the car in a different way, but he was also sure that his approach would lead to less complexity and lower costs. He was ahead of his time and only gradually did the car companies follow the ideas he presented.
Today's dashboards are much more complex and information-intensive than Buchmann's proposal and no one warns of the information overload that existed back then.
