Too much nostalgia, perhaps, but for an easily impressionable little boy, when the Fiat Tipo (1988) with the spectacular DGT letter combination appeared, I was immediately surrendered… to its instrument panel.
Yes, it wasn't the first car with a digital dashboard, but it was the one I had the opportunity to interact with more closely — especially in Tempra, years later, just like in the video.
For a child at the time, it was the closest thing to what you saw in science fiction movies and, of course, to the fantastic interior of KITT that you saw on TV on Sunday afternoons — no dubbed versions…
It was clearly the future… A future that would take nearly three decades for “digital” to completely conquer the interior — and now, curiously, it's a scenario that makes me afraid. Why?
The interfaces present an excess of information and options, are complex and not at all intuitive to operate, and prove to be weapons of massive distraction — nothing desirable when you are in control of a car. The future is today, but it needs to be rethought and better executed.
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