They were supposed to show me how fast I was going. The theory is that if you're able to see how fast you are going in numbers projected out in front of you, you won't have to look down at the instrument panel. Drivers can keep their heads up. I wanted an analog display, not a set of digits. The problem with digital representation of speed or time is that you get no sense of continuous movement.
Digital clocks cause a similar warping of reality.
It keeps saying that for quite a while. But my old-fashioned Timex tells me the truth. Three pointers move around the dial at different speeds. Sound works the same way. Anything we hear is a continuous event that starts at one time and ends at another.