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The dashboard of a modern car, a Bentley Continental GTC

A dashboard, dash, and sometimes fascia (chiefly in British English) is a control panel located under the windshield of an automobile. It contains instrumentation and controls pertaining to operation of the vehicle.

Originally, a dashboard was the upturned screen of wood or leather placed on the front of a horse-drawn carriage, sleigh or other vehicle that protected the driver from mud, debris, water and snow thrown up by the horse's hooves. ^{[1] [2]}

A Suzuki GSX1300R motorcycle dash

Lawn mowers, farm tractors, and earlier automobiles sometimes have little more than a steering wheel and some form of ignition or power switch.

Custom-built racing cars often simply have a piece of sheet metal that forms the dashboard. Whenever a new gauge needs to be added, a hole is drilled in the appropriate location. Open wheeled racing cars often have no space for a dashboard, so the instrument cluster is integrated into the center of the steering wheel.

Motorcycles and mopeds have a compressed version of car dashboards, but nevertheless larger machines sometimes have enough room for items such as audio equipment and GPS navigation.

Increasingly, manufacturers are experimenting with moving all display portions to the center console. Various arguments are put forward for this, including cost savings when constructing both left- and right-hand-drive versions.

Padded dashboards were advocated in the 1940s by car safety pioneer Claire L. Straith ^[3]

Under the aegis of a safety program initiated by Robert McNamara (see The Fog of War documentary), padded "safety" dashboards were introduced in 1956 by Ford under the name "Safeguard". Consumers showed little interest.^[4]

One of the safety enhancements of the 1970s was the widespread adoption of padded dashboards. The padding is commonly polyurethane foam, while the surface is commonly either polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or leather in the case of luxury models.

In the 1990s, airbags became a common fitment on dashboards, and are mandatory in some countries.

Dashboard instruments displaying various car and engine conditions

Items located on the dashboard first included the steering wheel and the instrument cluster. The instrument cluster pictured to the right conatins gauges such as a speedometer, tachometer, odometer, fuel gauge, and indicators such as a gear shift position, seat belt warning light, and engine malfunction light. Later came heating and ventilation controls and vents, lighting controls, and audio equipment. In more modern cars, automotive navigation systems are mounted in the dashboard.

The first audio component other than a radio was a monophonic phonograph option on some Chrysler cars well before the cassette or eight-track tape players, which could only be operated when the car was stopped. Graphic equalizers and controls for increased bass came next, and finally CD players.

The audio system controls (such as radio and CD player) may also be on the dashboard, although volume and tuning, for example, may be controlled from a stalk beside the steering wheel.

The top of a dashboard may contain speakers for an audio system, and vents for the heating and air conditioning system. A glovebox is often found on the passenger side, and sometimes on both sides.

A heavily stylised dashboard with deeply recessed instruments and controls from a 1980s Lancia Beta — period fashion

In the 1940s through the 1960s, American car manufacturers and their imitators designed unusually-shaped instruments on a dashboard laden with chrome and transparent plastic, which could be less readable but was often thought to be more stylish. Sunlight could cause a bright glare on the chrome, particularly for a convertible.

With the coming of the LED in consumer electronics, some manufacturers used instruments with digital readouts to make their cars appear more up to date, but this has faded from practise. Some cars use a head-up display to project the speed of the car onto the windscreen in imitation of fighter aircraft, but in a far less complex display.

Typical dashboard position in the front of the passenger compartment

Dashboard of a WWII jeep

A modern Formula 1 car may have its on-board instrumentation mounted on the steering wheel

A cluster of gauges as typically seen on kit-cars

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Dashboards

• Automotive navigation system
• Car AV
• Dashboard electronics
• Digital dashboard
• Glove compartment
• In car entertainment
• Vehicular communication systems