A few days ago, this symbol showed up on the dashboard of my new Tacoma.  I added the red circle to highlight the symbol of interest.  The symbol is cryptic and persistent, so the dashboard photo was taken so I could look it up.

What is it trying to tell me?

It looks a little like a teepee or a campfire, so probably something about native Americans.

In the documentation, the symbol looks like this.

The crisp image helps a bit.  The symbol is a “Low Outside Temperature Indicator”.

It’s stupid because I’m a human.  I know it’s cold outside.  Also, the symbol is right next to the outside temperature indicator.  What am I supposed to do with that information?

It’s dangerous because I don’t need that information, and the symbol is unclear.  I was staring at that, trying to ascertain what it means.  There is plenty of space for the truck to tell me what that means.

The area where it says “Adaptive Cruise Control” is used to tell me that I am drifting out of my lane, and the truck is nudging me back.  That space could be used to tell me what that symbol means.

If I won’t look out the window to see that I am drifting out of my lane and can’t feel the haptic feedback on the steering wheel, the lanes could still turn red.

Also, there is a big screen in the center of the console.  The setup button on the steering wheel could be used to request a list of all displayed symbols and their meaning.  That’s a persistent problem.  Cryptic symbols or non-intuitive abbreviations are used without explanation, even though there is plenty of screen space available to help.

I noticed that my new truck has fewer unnecessary safety warning stickers, then my last truck.  It’s like we figured that stuff out.  We seem to be in a similar stage with a smart truck.

My phone is integrated with the truck, and the truck has plenty of processing power.  Designers have a tremendous amount of information available, and trying to use it all for something.  In a few years, they might settle down, and only show information that’s helpful instead of showing anything they can.