Quote:
Originally Posted by Sigge
I agree that the orange feel a little outdated, but at the same time its something that defines BMW. I like it because of that reason. Its BMW and it makes you feel that you are driving something of high quality 
But still, hella impressive work! Do you have any idea how many hour this has taken you so far? |
It's actually a science to this... Pulled this quote from a pretty cool article in regards of using orange ambient colors in BMWs.. German Engineering at its finest...
"After some mostly unhelpful internet research, I reached out to BMW and was put in touch with President of BMW Designworks Oliver Heilmer. Designworks is a design shop wholly owned by BMW in LA, and it was intimately involved with the entire process that resulted in BMW's X family of SUVs. So it's appropriate that I'm speaking to Heilmer about the X4's dashboard.
Heilmer told me that BMW's characteristic orange-red hue is generated by light at a wavelength of 605 nanometers. The color was chosen to allow the driver to clearly see the instrument cluster, but also to be able to adjust to the darkness outside the vehicle quickly after looking up. The eye doesn't tire as quickly trying to read gauges illuminated with red-orange light, he said. BMW discovered this in the 1970s, and it's been both an aesthetic trademark and a conscious ergonomic decision ever since.
Heilmer didn't get into it, but the research I came across about how the human eye processes light lends a lot of credence to 605 nanometers being the ideal wavelength for night driving. Remember in anatomy class, when you leaned about rods and cones in your eyes? You might not remember much beyond that – I certainly didn't – but rods are very sensitive and essential in low-light situations. They're much more numerous, and more concentrated in the periphery of your eyes, not in the center. They also don't really process color, which is why it's tough to discern hues or sharp details in dim light, but they're great for detecting motion. Imagine our prehistoric predecessors checking out a cave in the dark: Rods are there to help you figure out if there's a bear in the back of that cave, and if it's coming to eat you, but not what color it is.
And then there are cones. Basically, cones do details and color very well. They're concentrated in the center of your eye. Most of them are tuned to detect red light, so you need less light overall to see something illuminated in that color. The other piece of the puzzle is that those motion-sensing rods are particularly insensitive to red light.
So imagine red light from a gauge cluster hitting your eyeball. The rods, very sensitive to light in general but not so much to red, aren't dazzled by it. The cones, less sensitive to light overall but highly attuned to red light, are able to pick out the details of what's illuminated pretty well. When you look up from the instrument cluster, your rods are in good shape and able to scan the road ahead for bears while your cones chill and wait for the next glance at the gauges."
https://www.autoblog.com/2017/02/28/...-illumination/