How reliable is that digital gauge?

What a question on something that’s still brand new! I know, I know . Hear me out, though...
My Sync 3 screen crashed on me last night: music/radio wouldn’t play, touch screen wouldn’t work, screen was frozen with corrupted graphics (it looked like several different pages of screens were sitting on top of each other), even turning the car off and opening the door and then turning it back on left the screen on with the corrupted graphics. Letting it sit for about 20 minutes or so with the engine off forced the power off from the infotainment (I’m guessing ), which did cycle it and fix the issue. (Next step was disconnecting the battery) Now, granted, I’m still using the stock Sync3 version (first release) that my 2016 came with back in October of 2015 as I’ve yet to update it, but still, it got me thinking... How safe is that digital gauge? Are there safety checks and multiple bios involved to ensure that the screen is displaying properly? I’m not saying this is unique to Ford in any way, but at least with Audi digital gauges (for example) you still have that HUD as a kinda backup so you can at least still see your speed and other vital info.

Just something that popped in my head and is making me continually wonder why we still have no damned HUD available in our Mustangs!

Spork3245 said:

Just something that popped in my head and is making me continually wonder why we still have no damned HUD available in our Mustangs!

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They dont want to spend the time and money to do so. simple.

brpec said:

They dont want to spend the time and money to do so. simple.

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Cool story?
Thanks for the backwards logic.

PS: they’re already working on implementing one, they’re just ridiculously late to the party. The new Lincoln Navigator is the first to get it and reports/rumors have stated that there’s one on the upcoming GT500... but a HUD isn’t the point of this thread.

I imagine the digital gauge cluster won't have the same glitches that the infotainment system has. The digital cluster won't have the same processing load that an infotainment system would have.

Anything is better than the iPhone X though. What kind of phone has a screen that freezes in cold weather. :lol:

I think my 2018 digital dash has an issue , will not bring up the fuel mileage information any more, but to be fair I haven't spent much time to see if it is something I did. Could be that it doesn't want to tell me after i've been checking out the performance !

Ebm said:

I imagine the digital gauge cluster won't have the same glitches that the infotainment system has. The digital cluster won't have the same processing load that an infotainment system would have.

Anything is better than the iPhone X though. What kind of phone has a screen that freezes in cold weather. :lol:

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Yea, I'm not overly concerned about it, BUT, after my Sync 3 screen glitched out it got me wondering if there are any safety checks and/or backup things in play with the digital gauge cluster compared to the Sync 3 Infotainment screen. I'm sure someone will soon post about how you could just "guess" your current speed or whatever, but if I was on a long trip, 2-3 hours away from my house, then turned the car on to drive home and that digital cluster didn't work, it would most certainly be an issue. (especially if it happened during a drive!)

I think you're over thinking a bit here, the digital dash might looks different, but it's essentially just a display. The information shown on it is still processed by something else, which is mostly the same as the non-digital dash cars. So all your concerns will also apply to the cars without digital dash as well.

Also, displays are one of the most robust electronics out there.

DukeGaGa said:

I think you're over thinking a bit here, the digital dash might looks different, but it's essentially just a display. The information shown on it is still processed by something else, which is mostly the same as the non-digital dash cars. So all your concerns will also apply to the cars without digital dash as well.

Also, displays are one of the most robust electronics out there.

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Yes... that's what I'm questioning. It's all being processed by a computer, just like the Sync 3. The graphics could corrupt, just like the Sync 3, the screen could randomly stop working due to a software bug, just like the Sync 3, etc
An analog dial cannot have display corruption due to a GPU or software bug. It could still be sending the speed and tach info, etc, but if the GPU isn't sending display info, none of that matters - very different from an analog gauge.

Spork3245 said:

Yes... that's what I'm questioning. It's all being processed by a computer, just like the Sync 3. The graphics could corrupt, just like the Sync 3, the screen could randomly stop working due to a software bug, just like the Sync 3, etc
An analog dial cannot have display corruption due to a GPU or software bug. It could still be sending the speed and tach info, etc, but if the GPU isn't sending display info, none of that matters - very different from an analog gauge.

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I think your worrying over very little. GUIs like this are used widely and failure rate, today, is quite low. If you are truly worried about it crapping out during a trip, buy an OBD xmitter and beam MPH it to your phone.

control4userguy said:

I think your worrying over very little. GUIs like this are used widely and failure rate, today, is quite low. If you are truly worried about it crapping out during a trip, buy an OBD xmitter and beam MPH it to your phone.

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Read the OP. I'm not worried about failure, I'm worried about temporary display glitch.

Spork, looking at what you described with the Sync3, I don't think the issue was with the display, but with the underlying system that controls it. If that was the case, then the situation DukeGaGa described would probably apply, meaning it's not the display that had the issue, it was the underlying system, and that would affect physical gauges the same because they'd be getting their data from the same corrupted source.

Also, the digital dash is just a display, not an input device like the Sync3 screen, so there's less it has to do and that would probably lower the chances of an issue. It's either that, or I'm wrong

Arthonon said:

Spork, looking at what you described with the Sync3, I don't think the issue was with the display, but with the underlying system that controls it. If that was the case, then the situation DukeGaGa described would probably apply, meaning it's not the display that had the issue, it was the underlying system, and that would affect physical gauges the same because they'd be getting their data from the same corrupted source.

Also, the digital dash is just a display, not an input device like the Sync3 screen, so there's less it has to do and that would probably lower the chances of an issue. It's either that, or I'm wrong

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Gotcha. That's my concern though, perhaps I'm not explaining said concern well; my concern is with whatever is doing the rendering of the graphics having a bug or corruption occur and I'm more wondering if there are backups or safety checks in play to prevent issues. I totally understand that the Sync 3 has more going on with it so it's more likely to have issues, I'm just using that as an example.

Electronic displays have been used in aircraft for decades and are extremely reliable. It is far more likely to have a failure in the mechanical/analog input to the display, such as a pitot static failure, than have an actual display failure. That being said, display failure tends to be an all-or-nothing proposition.

Are Ford displays and software manufactured/tested to the standard of aircraft displays? Probably not. The display itself is probably just as good or better, but I doubt the software is as robustly tested.

TomcatDriver said:

Electronic displays have been used in aircraft for decades and are extremely reliable. It is far more likely to have a failure in the mechanical/analog input to the display, such as a pitot static failure, than have an actual display failure. That being said, display failure tends to be an all-or-nothing proposition.

Are Ford displays and software manufactured/tested to the standard of aircraft displays? Probably not. The display itself is probably just as good or better, but I doubt the software is as robustly tested.

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THANK YOU!
That's what I'm worried about - software. Running on only 4-ish hours of sleep, definitely could've simplified my post just by saying that :cheers:

65 stang said:

I think my 2018 digital dash has an issue , will not bring up the fuel mileage information any more, but to be fair I haven't spent much time to see if it is something I did. Could be that it doesn't want to tell me after i've been checking out the performance !

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Press the settings button on your steering wheel (2 gear icons), press "View Trip/Fuel Info", use the up and down arrows to cycle through the 2 trip screens and view instant/average MPG.