Analog to Digital: The future of clusters.

In this era where change is happening every second with digitalisation, the automobile industry is no different. New technologies emerge every day and it's critical to strategize on not just the manufacturer's preference but also the customer’s, to go with the analog maintaining the traditional old school feel or evolve to digital with the ever-growing market. To make a better decision, let's look at the different automobile clusters available in the market.

1. Analog Cluster- The traditional cluster which involves the mechanical meters which usually display the speedometer and a few other gauges.
2. Semi-digital cluster- A semi-digital cluster comes with par analog par digital cluster.
3. Digital cluster- A digital cluster as the name says is a full digital version of the analog cluster with a display which can be customized according to needs.

Diving deeper when the decision to choose between the Analog and the digital cluster is overhead we always have to look at it weighing the pros and cons of them both. Analog cluster gives us a sense of nostalgia but it has quite a few drawbacks when compared to the digital cluster,

1. The customization factor, in the current market where the customer is the king and they expect maximum customization the analog cluster fails to stand up to the expectation of the customers.
2. The parallax errors during reading occur often in the analog cluster and it is difficult to have a steady reading with high vibration.
3. Analog cluster cannot be updated over time and has to remain the same over its lifetime and act of after-sales service isn’t quite apt with it.
4. The analog clusters break down quite often with the needles coming off and various other problems such as the frauds that are committed by easily manipulating the meters.

Choosing a digital cluster has the advantage of having a customizable cluster, which can be updated over time to improve the customer experience. The accessibility also increases drastically with various features that act as the biggest perk of the digital cluster. Few other features that can be added with the digital cluster are the navigation feature, Bluetooth connection and the addition of the animation feature to make the cluster look more attractive and increase the usability of the cluster. The cons of the digital clusters are that they are costlier than the analog clusters and require power to be operated but as the technology improves and the price of the digital cluster decrease they are the future of the cluster they seem like the right option today. Though analog clusters have served as well it’s time for the digital cluster which are the future.