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I drive an older Toyota car, the clock only shows hours and minutes. I wonder who decided it was necessary or helpful to start including calendar dates in a ca

I drive an older Toyota car, the clock only shows hours and minutes. I wonder who decided it was necessary or helpful to start including calendar dates in a car clock display.

oneplane 5y ago
A lot of humans don't run on numbers and thus don't remember all the numbers that describe a certain temporal value all that well. This includes, years, months, dates, week numbers, hours, minutes, seconds, and timezone offsets. Luckily, the devices we have around us are much better at number-things, so it was probably deemed helpful to have those devices that are (supposedly) good at numbers display them to us so when we forget, we have a reference that can help us remember.
Karawebnetwork 5y ago
It's on the road that I lose track of time the most. The motels all look alike, the roads look the same, and I am out of my usual routine. It's easy for me to think that it's Tuesday and not Wednesday. Not only does my car display the date, but it has a full calendar app that reminds me of events and suggests the shortest route to get there. The alternative would be to look at my phone while driving, which is illegal where I live. Yes, this is something that should be done outside of the car, but sometimes you need to know when you are driving and having it on the dashboard is the way to go.
- throw0101a 5y ago
  > Not only does my car display the date, but it has a full calendar app that reminds me of events and suggests the shortest route to get there. I'd rather have my phone do that, and my car (display) be a simple dumb terminal that displays whatever my phone tells it to. I generally trust the software teams at my smartphone maker to get things more-right with these types of things: will my car maker issue patches for, e.g., DST changes?
  - Karawebnetwork 5y ago
    In all honesty, I barely use the built-in OS anymore and have it to default on Android Auto. Which also display the date and calendar. But this also has its issues. It requires a physical wire from the phone to the car and sometimes my aging phone will decide to crash/reboot during navigation. This ended in me needing to exit the highway to reconfigure my route a few times. Currently, my only use of the car's OS is the media center. Instead of using my phone, I have a large drive filled with music plugged in one of the USB ports. Not only does it saves some of my phone's data and space, it makes it more stable. Using Spotify and a navigation app at the same time often has my phone freeze which can result in missing certain directions. This is especially true when the battery reach 100% and begin heating as it tries to charge on/off.
moduspol 5y ago
I'd like to say it makes sense (at least in the US) so that daylight saving time transitions can be automated. My history with cars, though, is that it often is not used for that.
mark-r 5y ago
I drive a 2021 Toyota. When you go to the Clock setup it has an interesting feature - the first setting is for daylight saving. Turn it on, the clock goes an hour ahead, turn it off and it goes an hour back. No more fumbling with the clock twice a year, and no need to have the year. And no worrying about Congress making your clock obsolete.

I drive an older Toyota car, the clock only shows hours and minutes. I wonder who decided it was necessary or helpful to start including calendar dates in a car clock display.

oneplane 5y ago

A lot of humans don't run on numbers and thus don't remember all the numbers that describe a certain temporal value all that well. This includes, years, months, dates, week numbers, hours, minutes, seconds, and timezone offsets. Luckily, the devices we have around us are much better at number-things, so it was probably deemed helpful to have those devices that are (supposedly) good at numbers display them to us so when we forget, we have a reference that can help us remember.

Karawebnetwork 5y ago

It's on the road that I lose track of time the most. The motels all look alike, the roads look the same, and I am out of my usual routine. It's easy for me to think that it's Tuesday and not Wednesday. Not only does my car display the date, but it has a full calendar app that reminds me of events and suggests the shortest route to get there. The alternative would be to look at my phone while driving, which is illegal where I live. Yes, this is something that should be done outside of the car, but sometimes you need to know when you are driving and having it on the dashboard is the way to go.

throw0101a 5y ago
> Not only does my car display the date, but it has a full calendar app that reminds me of events and suggests the shortest route to get there. I'd rather have my phone do that, and my car (display) be a simple dumb terminal that displays whatever my phone tells it to. I generally trust the software teams at my smartphone maker to get things more-right with these types of things: will my car maker issue patches for, e.g., DST changes?
- Karawebnetwork 5y ago
  In all honesty, I barely use the built-in OS anymore and have it to default on Android Auto. Which also display the date and calendar. But this also has its issues. It requires a physical wire from the phone to the car and sometimes my aging phone will decide to crash/reboot during navigation. This ended in me needing to exit the highway to reconfigure my route a few times. Currently, my only use of the car's OS is the media center. Instead of using my phone, I have a large drive filled with music plugged in one of the USB ports. Not only does it saves some of my phone's data and space, it makes it more stable. Using Spotify and a navigation app at the same time often has my phone freeze which can result in missing certain directions. This is especially true when the battery reach 100% and begin heating as it tries to charge on/off.

moduspol 5y ago

I'd like to say it makes sense (at least in the US) so that daylight saving time transitions can be automated. My history with cars, though, is that it often is not used for that.

mark-r 5y ago

I drive a 2021 Toyota. When you go to the Clock setup it has an interesting feature - the first setting is for daylight saving. Turn it on, the clock goes an hour ahead, turn it off and it goes an hour back. No more fumbling with the clock twice a year, and no need to have the year. And no worrying about Congress making your clock obsolete.