You know how sometimes you see something so ridiculous and absurd you find yourself becoming unreasonably smitten with it? Like, say, if a kitten in a Dickies jumpsuit showed up to repair your HVAC, or you bought a new set of brake pads and found that they were made of intricately carved scrimshaw. I’m a big fan of such things, and David showed me something that I feel like fits into this category remarkably well, and it comes from a pretty unexpected source: the dashboard of a third-gen (2014-2018) Chevy Silverado 1500.
Specifically, it’s the center stack infotainment screen on the Silverado 1500. I know almost all of us have very mixed feelings about how much modern car interiors are now dominated by screens, but I think we’ve also been trained by now to expect a certain look and size of screen on a car or truck, and when there’s a significant deviation from that, it strikes us as off. Perhaps even funny. Which is pretty much what I’m getting from these third-generation Silverado screens.
You’ve already seen it in the top image up there, but let’s take another look, because it really is remarkable:
Now, let me be clear here: I don’t have a problem with small screens, and I prefer physical controls to controls embedded into touch screen menus. Absolutely, no question. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the design comedy of a tiny screen set into an area clearly designed to house a significantly larger screen. Because look at that!
Look at the size of that bezel around the screen! There are acres of featureless black, slightly curved, textured plastic forming a vast territory around that tiny pond of a screen. Really, it’s not so much that the screen is too small – I’m sure there are other cars that have had similarly-sized screens before – but in this context, in this design, where it gets lost in the vastness of nothingness that surrounds it, you can’t help but smile.
It’s hard not to look at that screen and be reminded of 1940s-era televisions, with their tiny black-and-white CRTs peeking out of huge wooden enclosures and early portable computers like the Osborne I from 1981, with a tiny 5″ green phosphor screen inset into the middle of a suitcase full of electronics:
Oh, you know what else it reminds me of? The control panel in a Soviet-era Soyuz spacecraft!
The Silverado doesn’t have one of those amazing mechanical globes, but you get the idea.
If you’ll permit me to go even farther with the visual associations, even beyond the world of tiny screens embedded into bigger pieces of equipment, then consider this visual analogy: the toilet with the joke hole only big enough for farts from that episode of I Think You Should Leave:
I mean, look at it; you can see what I’m getting at, right?
I don’t necessarily have a greater point to make here other than to note the inherent and strangely charming comedy of these design choices, and I think that’s probably enough. I think back in 2014 or so this would have looked much less strange; but today, when the default is massive screens commanding every available inch of dash real estate, it absolutely feels quaint and strange.
I mean, look at the dash of the current Silverado:
Screens on screens on screens. Once, long ago, we had these things contained, protected, and separated by massive bezels. Is this progress? Who’s to say?
Top graphic image: eBay; oldcomputers.net
Being the first newer vehicle I’ve put a stereo into, I was dismayed that the stereo had to plug into another computer box to communicate with the entire vehicle’s system. The door chime is through the speakers?! Now there are gremlins in my setup since it randomly switches from carplay to FM radio or the whole unit just randomly goes dark and then turns back on. Sometimes it’s still connected, other times it reboots.
Modern vehicles SUCK. My truck is a 2015 WT spec with 222,000 and I can’t imagine how horrible and glitchy the newer ones are.
Jason I had one in my basement until I threw it out a few months ago. I would have sent it to you! The funny thing is that that whole panel for the “radio” is only about 1.5’’ thick. There is a 4pack of skinny beers worth of space behind it. I upgraded to a new stereo with bluetooth but made sure it had a knob for volume!
I like how the center dash has a design lip around the vents and whole thing, then another around the controls, then another around the stereo itself and then ANOTHER instep for the screen itself. It’s in a cave of plastic.
What is this? A center screen for ants?
Ya they were fresh off the bailout from their bankruptcy then and playing catch up. Ford had one 3 times that big in 09, took Chevy 5 years to even add a screen, ha!
This reminds me of the sort of enshittification that happens as standards clash across platforms.
When cameras were bulky things that people slung around their necks, virtually all photos were horizontal. I worked at a photo lab during some of that era, and I was constantly amazed by the amazement some people showed when they learned that stuff like trees and tall buildings fit in the frame better if they turned the camera on its side.
Today cameras live in devices we hold vertically, and…
Well, TikTok happened.
A large number of people who retain sight in both eyes and therefore dislike having to peer through narrow gaps as a default way of viewing the world decried the vertical format that became popular once 80 percent of everybody came to rely on TikTok for watching videos.
Now that YouTube has conceded to this trend with its Shorts format, things get extra hilarious when someone reposts a horizontally-recorded video from TikTok. As a result, the actual viewable content on a TV becomes a small horizontal section in the center of a vertical stripe, effectively turning a 55” television into a 17” monitor you have to squint at from across the room.
We’re buying TVs the size of barn doors and often only using about a tenth of them.
I’ve also seen content creators do the other way around: uploading full length vertical videos in Youtube, making the content almost unusable.
We as humans have a horizontal layout for our eyes, and for decades the default device for content consumption were TVs and Monitors fitted that field of view. It just feels natural.
Now that smartphones are the default content consumption devices across the world, the vertical content is not an issue, as the smaller screen fits our field of view just fine. But it absolutely becomes crap once it’s seen on any larger, landscape device.
Personally I have zero issues flipping my phone 90 degrees to watch horizontal content but I know my opinion is unpopular in this day and age
My gt350 had a 4.3″ I think. It was really for the backup cam, with a side of do things for the stereo.
YOU’RE NOT PART OF THE TURBO TEAM!
And this is what I came to the comments for, thank you.
Now eat the receipt!
We’re all just here trying to do something nice before alcohol class.
That’s the screen they installed to punish you for making them sell you a truck at the price they advertise it at. Rams had something similar.
Work truck spec Chevy and Ford had really small screens like that for a while especially after rear view cameras were mandatory. There might have been a year of rams but I think they had a 4.3 or close to 5″ still small but not like those little 2.7′ or 3″ the ford and Chevy hads. Slightly less ridiculous. I couldn’t ever understand it as lcds have even dirt cheap for the whole time they have been doing it. Especially a standard 7″. I was more of a fan on putting the screen in the mirror if it’s really that small. Some gm trucks had those and a lot to the medium duty trucks did too.
We have an older full-size Transit that has one of the smaller 4″ screens for the backup camera, compounded by the fact it’s mounted something like almost 3 feet from the driver. At least the resolution is decent enough. Chevy cameras I’ve seen were usually blurrier, and with Dodges that had it in the mirror projecting through the silvering also makes for a pretty soft image.
That Soyuz cockpit looks like it has an anti theft removable steering yoke. Lol! You know you are in the space hood when you see one of those. Not even the Millennium Falcon had one. That earth globe instrument is pretty sweet though.
Reminds me of Bill Hicks’ bit about UFOs:
“ Last thing I wanna see is a flying saucer up on blocks in front of some trailer, you know?”
Also this:
“Dang, that is a sweet Earth you might say… ROUND!”
https://youtu.be/enRzYWcVyAQ?si=ZlXrVlPhlqGCEL9W
It’s never too late for the End of Ze World.
Then don’t go to the UFO Retrieval Service near San Diego County’s Jacumba Hot Springs.
I don’t mind screens so long as I still many get real buttons. What I do mind is when it looks like they glued a tablet to the dash. That Chevy screen looks like all those option blank plates that are there to remind you that no, you don’t have any of those features on your base model.
The most offensive part is one model year before this came out your basic work trucks had that gorgeous aqua colored LCD screen that while being basic and simple, didn’t feel like it was poor-shaming you, it just felt old school and honest.
Selling these trucks was annoying; you either had people that wanted a screen visibly disappointed that this was the screen they got, or the old folks that didn’t want a screen annoyed that the only option was a tiny, almost unreadable screen.
Actually, the “screen” you’re mentioning is the Driver Information Center which was a 2 line VF display in the instrument cluster; although those trucks (mainly the fully loaded LTZs and Denalis, did have optional touchscreen navigation that was a standard DoubleDIN radio)
Torch, you included the wrong current Silverado dash photo.
You can still get the regular-cab, short-box WT model with a small screen and analog gauges.
https://cgi.chevrolet.com/mmgprod-us/dynres/prove/imageinterior.gen?i=2026/CK10703/CK10703__1WT/H2G_L3B_MFC_GU6_Q5U_QBN_QBR_GBA_AZ3_H2G_IORgmds10.jpg&v=deg01&std=true&country=US
Plus, the 2026 regular-cab, short-box WT has more HP and torque than the old Silverado 454SS pickups from the ’90s.
Wow I had no idea you could still get the pre-refresh interior in the Silverado WT. guess that’s what I get for never bothering to look though
Yea gods that is an ugly dash!!
I actually would prefer a dashboard like this if I bought a new truck. It’s perfect for those of us who do not like all the huge screens everywhere. I just wish I could get one with three pedals.
The Slate truck has an even smaller screen:
https://hips.hearstapps.com/mtg-prod/680975b03a723200088d7a8c/011-2027-slate-truck.jpg?*&w=768&width=768&q=75&format=webp
The wild thing is that every Silverado prior to (I think) 2023 got that dash. Your $60000 high zoot pickup came with that interior.
With the added complexity and enshittification of a modern GM vehicle. It also won’t be running in 35 years like a 90’s truck still can.
The Ford F150 XL level also used a smaller screen for the radio/backup camera. You buy a cheap truck you get a little screen.
Tiny screen but ALL the physical controls! I can replace that tiny OEM screen with a giant aftermarket screen with a lot less effort than retrofitting physical controls.
If I install my own monitor I won’t have to buy a replacement from a car dealer, plus I get to choose how good it is!
A monitor built for use in direct sunlight should actually be viewable on bright days.
I bet it would still be cheaper than the no longer obtainable one that fits the dash.
You might even be able to find an integrated one made specifically for your car, even if such touch screens didn’t exist when the car was made.
For example you can get up to a 12.1″ vertical screen for a Gen7 Accord:
19255-0&campid=5338590836&toolid=10044&loc_physical_ms=86114&customid=5226096b76b9104cf17360cca33c00a5&gclid=5226096b76b9104cf17360cca33c00a5
I’m leaning toward having control over the screen ecosystem myself, same as in the home.
Even if it’s an optimum screen as designed, in five years will it be an eight track?
Or even available?
If you can build your own that’s great! Linux? LineageOS?
I am mostly interested in functional cameras, but I should be able to feed DVD and navigation into a decent monitor.
So far, muxlab or somebody else has a way to make all the geewhiz digital stuff talk to my analog equipment.
Or maybe chasecam?
I’m looking into forward radar and infrared too.
I actually LOVE the way GM mocks the buyers of cheap trucks. There was a certain generation (GMT400 or maybe 800) in which trucks with a higher GVW didn’t require a passenger air bag, so GM put in a dummy airbag cover with a completely useless cubby.
Eh, Jason is just showing off his guest appearance on ITYSL. Good job on the unreasonably angry lawyer trope.
Our base-spec work truck that I drive everyday has that dashboard. You can’t even touch the screen; it just assigns like “ok” or “cancel” (to the “don’t stare at this while driving” warning on startup) to those buttons under the screen lol
Aww, click bait and switch, all I saw was tiny infotainment stack and thought it was on a new car not an oldish truck.
One of the current interior styling tropes is the screen that looks like it pops up out of the dashboard, but it just sits there, never popping up or down.
Btw, what the fuck is infotainment anyway? It seems apropos to reenacted sea battles with real ships in the Roman coliseum, not the radio on a TV in the middle of the dashboard.
Note to Autopian art department, the next time there’s a think piece about screens in automobiles, a picture of Russell Crowe in gladiator drag saying “Are you not infotained?” would be a banger.
You need to go to the eye doctor if you missed the “2014-2018” in black bold font in the headline 😉
Been to the eye doctor too many times and have another appointment next week. Cataracts really suck wear dark glasses all the time guys. Oh, and last year I had a detached retina that especially sucks. If you’re curious, and I’m sure you are not, the treatment is to cut the eyeball open. Then take a bunch of needles and sort of spread the retina back over where it’s supposed to be, and zap it with lasers. Stitch the eyeball back up and then you have to spend six weeks face down and not go anywhere more than 400 feet higher in altitude than when you have the surgery. The week where your eyeball is half full of fluid is amusing. If you ever studied the eye and wondered what the refraction of eyeball fluid contributed to the function of the eye, now you know!
Oh, and they do the surgery with you wide awake because you have to describe what’s happening to them.
I do not recommend it if at all avoidable, aside from the obvious unpleasantness, the result is everything looks like wrinkled paper.
So yeah my vision sucks, and after a career of making hyper detailed photos and art, it really really sucks. Also putting things together with 1mm machine screws is no fun.
But thanks for noticing.
To me, “infortainment” always makes me think “CNN.” Or maybe how now, all information on actually operating your vehicle is now buried at the back of the owner’s manual b/c pages and pages at the front need to be devoted to how to do things other than operate your vehicle.
Despite the appearance, it was still an improvement over the base AM/FM-only radio the earlier base model GM trucks had. And before everyone says “At least those radios had buttons!”, they sure did, and those buttons would flake off the black paint and glow various colors of green beneath while still only receiving AM and FM radio. I’m a staunch fan of buttons, but I also like Bluetooth.
Nothing compares to the short golden age of in car music. The double din whatever you want you get era.
2nd place goes to built in AM/FM +CD+AUX+USB.
I couldn’t live with that. It’s like blank switches, but on steroids.
It’s a real missed opportunity on that bezel, so much real estate to add senseless graphics! It could say “4×4!” or “Off Road!” or something with some jazzy swoops and stripes. I guess that kinda thing mostly died off in the 90s….
I’m reminded of this:
https://i.imgflip.com/62oa7w.jpg
…This gives me the same “Brought into the future kicking and screaming” energy my ’16 FR-S’s Pioneer screen stereo has. Except way more twee and absurd. I love it.
Ah yes, the base spec “whatever” bit. Could you at least try? Maybe some small storage cubbys?
A nice useful hole! That’s
the ticket.
It sounds like the Amigara editon! It’s like it was made for you.
I love that screen too. Kinda wish it was still an option.