The Lamborghini Aventador: A case study in poor dashboard design
blog.geckoboard.comThe author fails to realize that except for a few thrilling seconds a year (if that) the typical Lambo owner drives no faster than any other car. "Supercars" are actually toys. Nobody really cares about the dashboard on those things. The owners care about the latent power in the engine and, as Top Gear once mentioned about the Murcielago, "[whether or not] the car pushes all your 'caveman' buttons" . They deliberately overlook UX considerations, comfort, ergonomics, mileage, maintenance schedule and trunk space. If you're driving a Lamborghini, you're not doing it for practical reasons.
Also the author leaves out the golden rule of UX and that is user demographics. Who is using it and what attracts them. What if the majority of your customers though jet fighter cockpits where cool, what if it made them feel cooler to have a complex machine that appears to require expertise. What is the personality type that buy the product, do they buy it because they feel it will make them cooler. Put a single little cute character on the dash display with a single push button and see what happens to their sales. They are targeting a demographic that likes buttons and gadgets, they want it to look complex as it is about an experience and the drivers of those cars want to feel like they are in a complex highly advanced machine. Some of the Rube goldberg'ing is intentional to create the allure that their demographic is after.
Also worth noting that a comparison to an M5's dashboard isn't particularly relevant. When driving exotic cars, the RPMs are significantly more important to the driving experience and performance than the actual speed. That's why the tachometer is so massive and speed is relegated to a simple small number
Indeed, one would expect to drive to work in an M5 or pick-up groceries without making a scene. The M5 is a very expensive "everyday" car albeit with 7 speeds. People purchase it because they're optimizing for a "total experience" and will seriously think twice if the dashboard (or any other component) makes them say "WTF!".
On the other hand, Lamborghini knows it isn't going to lose significant sales because Dolce and Gabana (or whoever) did the UX for the dashboard!
IIRC in another screen shot is did display speed, I would imagine that their is a toggle switch on the wheel to switch between gauges. But yes RPM's are far more important when you are pushing an engine.
What really surprises me is how UGLY that dashboard is. (I'm a professional designer, so I'm licensed to say that.)
The exterior is sleek and beautiful, so it's like there has been no common goal or oversight when designing the car as a whole.