Dashboard

A dashboard (also called dash, instrument panel, or fascia) is a control panel placed in front of the driver of an automobile, housing instrumentation and controls for operation of the vehicle.

Etymology

Originally, the word 'dashboard' applied to a barrier of wood or leather fixed at the front of a horse-drawn carriage or sleigh to protect the driver from mud or other debris "dashed up" (thrown up) by the horses' hooves. Commonly these did not perform any additional function other than providing a convenient handhold for ascending into the driver's seat, or a small clip with which to secure the reins when not in use.

When the first 'horseless carriages' were constructed in the late 19th century, with engines mounted beneath the driver such as the Daimler Stahlradwagen, the simple dashboard was retained to protect occupants from debris thrown up by the cars' front wheels. However, as car design evolved to position the motor in front of the driver, the dashboard became a panel that protected vehicle occupants from the heat and oil of the engine. With gradually increasing mechanical complexity, this panel formed a convenient location for the placement of gauges and minor controls, and from this evolved the modern instrument panel, although retaining its archaic common name.

Dashboard (disambiguation)

A dashboard is a control panel located in front of the driver of a vehicle.

Dashboard may also refer to:

Dashboard (Mac OS)

Dashboard is an application for Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X operating systems, used as a secondary desktop for hosting mini-applications known as widgets. These are intended to be simple applications that do not take time to launch. Dashboard applications supplied with OS X include a stock ticker, weather report, calculator and notepad; users can create or download their own.

Before OS X 10.7 "Lion", when Dashboard is activated, the user's desktop is dimmed and widgets appear in the foreground. Like application windows, they can be moved around, rearranged, deleted, and recreated (so that more than one of the same Widget is open at the same time, possibly with different settings). New widgets can be opened, via an icon bar on the bottom of the layer, loading a list of available apps similar to the iOS homescreen or the OS X Launchpad. After loading, the widget is ready for use.

Dashboard was first introduced in Tiger. It can be activated as an application, from the Dock, Launchpad or Spotlight. Alternatively, the user can choose to make Dashboard open on moving the cursor into a preassigned hot corner or keyboard shortcut. Starting with OS X 10.7 "Lion", the Dashboard can be configured as a space, accessed by swiping four fingers to the right from the Desktops either side of it. In OS X Yosemite, the Dashboard is disabled by default, as the Notification Center is now the primary method of displaying widgets.