Question: I just finished my rental with a 2013 Prius. I found the top-center instrument cluster hard to get used to at night, and the dimming switch did not seem to work smoothly: there was only bright, dim, and off. In "off," the only things on the cluster that remained lit were the "gear" position icons and the hybrid system "ready" indicator. I found it curious that I could actually turn the speedometer off, seemingly by design/choice. Is this a normal function?
Model 3. Ambient light sensor, lights on or off, dimmer position...all interplay. But at night I definitely notice a dimming effect when the headlights are switched to the intermediate position on the stalk. Sometimes I'll use that intermediate position as a DRL substitute and then I'll break out into sunny and when I switch to headlights off I get bright displays back. Switch back to headlights on and all the displays go dim. I suppose I set the dimmer switch back when the car was new, now don't ever use it. And yes I've had the switches in a position where the displays weren't visible (combination of lights on and dimmer low IIRC) so it is a feature and not a bug <grin>. A little fiddling with the dimmer wheel cured it.
Thanks, Mike. It just seems like an odd feature to offer. If you're bombing down a highway alone without cruise control and no traffic flow to reference, well, you could be doing 55 or 75 when pulled over.
You maybe get in the "no display" position once or twice but you eventually settle on a configuration of the switches and stop fiddling and start driving and it never happens again. I don't think I've touched the dimmer for months but, if I did, it had just became instinctual to dial the right brightness that I didn't think about it. Certainly wasn't one of the things I noted in my personal best and worst features posting that others added theirs too below.
