Why do they call the dashboard in a car a dashboard?

Question

We all know where it is, above the instrument cluster, and has a glove box located in it somewhere. Why on earth would it be named a dashboard?

Answer 1

the origin is this mate , a board of wood or leather in front of a carriage, to keep out mud.
this is why it was made but why it was named that hmm hmm , who knows how and why the words took such a shape and such a meaning . why is a car called a car , it could well have been anything else .

Answer 2

It is unrelated to GPS. Bluetooth connectivity for cell/smart phones is ubiquitous. My 2005 325i has it and it doesn't have the iDrive or GPS. My 2006 530i has it. When your phone is with you, you can scroll through your phone's address book that is displayed on the dash screen and use buttons on the steering wheel to start and end a call. A given phone must be paired and present. So your driver had her phone with her, maybe in her purse. Prius has it. Most upscale cars include Bluetooth phone connectivity standard although I see a lot of people holding handsets because they were too lazy to follow the instructions to pair their phone[s] to the car. Most cars mfg's offer it as part of a package, sometimes they refer to it as a "technology package". The instructions to pair it for my 2006 are very tedious and not intuitive. Hopefully BMW improved upon early versions.

Answer 3

It originated from the horse and buggy days. The curved front of a wagon or buggy was called a dash board. It was to keep the mud and water from the horses hooves from the passengers.
Like the glove box. No-one hardly puts gloves in it. But during the early days of the auto, gloves were worn while driving and they were stored in the glove box.

Answer 4

Yep, what they said, with this explaining the word

Main Entry: dash
Function: noun
1 a archaic : BLOW b (1) : a sudden burst or splash

Answer 5

That's where you head dashes to if you don't wear a seat belt.

Answer 6

because steering wheel was taken already...I guess