Saab Night Panel
Image Source: Saab Automobile USA
When Swedish aviation manufacturer Saab decided to try its hand at manufacturing automobiles as well, naturally some aspects of the two industries crossed over. Of these aspects comes the unique night panel. Although mysterious in name, the night panel, known at its inception in 1993 as the “black panel” was a button located on the dash that removed the backlighting from all “non-essential” gauges. This was to allow drivers at night to only pay attention to the important aspects of their vehicle, most notably the speedometer. However, all of the systems still operate behind the scenes and only come on if something goes awry, such as a high coolant temperature or low oil pressure.