Category: Articles & Commentaries

Discussions on topics of interest to drivers concerning things they may not understand about their vehicles as well as articles on the future of the auto industry.

Mazda dashboard symbols update nets 17 new indicators

Mazda logoMazda dashboard symbols

A full review of 2024 and 2025 models results in the addition of 17 new indicators to the Mazda dashboard symbols page. This is due to the addition of a number of new technologies to Mazda models.

The most significant one is from what the company calls Cruising & Traffic Support (CTS), which results in one of only three truly new symbols shown on the page (we added a few new text symbols as well). It is a malfunction indicator, seen below right. CTS, part of Mazda‘s i-ACTIVSENSE system, is a technology that consists of a headway control and steering assist function for reducing driver fatigue during traffic jams when driving on expressways or highways.

Cruise and traffic support warningThe mention of “traffic jams” suggests it is meant to operate at slow speeds. However, further in Mazda’s description of the system, it states that “If a vehicle ahead is traveling at an extremely low speed, the system may not detect it correctly.” So its clear that this is meant to be “heavy traffic” not traffic jams.

It is, in effect, a low level self drive system that Mazda is playing catch up with.

Emergency lane keeping offCharge mode indicatorThe other two new indicators are a Charge Mode indicator (right), used in a new hybrid model, and another that indicates that lane keeping is turned off (far right). In the latter case, Mazda chose to adds an arrow in the direction of travel and a star to suggest a collision to an existing symbol. It also removes a lane line.

New technological additions will continue to swell the number of indicators drivers must cope with, and we’ll make another plea for manufacturers to at least draw from existing symbols rather than create new one unnecessarily.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

You can see the Mazda dashboard symbols page, now numbering over 80 total indicators, here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/mazda-dashboard-symbols-update-nets-17-new-indicators/

Collision warning and intervention system indicators now number 29

Collision Warning and Intervention

Our Collision Warning and Intervention page now features 29 entries. We added another today from Mazda, who also uses a different name for the system: Smart Brake Support (SBS). That’s now nine different naming conventions for the same basic system.

Plus, our Collision Warning and Intervention page begins with a an item from In August of 2022, which points out that six leading organizations that are committed to consumer safety and education — AAA, Consumer Reports, J.D. Power, National Safety Council, PAVE, and SAE — came together to develop the standardized naming conventions for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) technologies.

So much for that…

Smart brake support offCollision WarningAuto braking off indicatorForward Collision Warning OffThe added symbol brings to four the number of symbols used for the system simply being turned off. Each has the word off in it, one is purely an acronym for the system, three use a car or two cars as well as stars to suggest a crash, while Mazda adds an arrow for the direction of travel (far right).

The addition is completely unnecessary in our opinion. One of the other two illustrations could easily have been used. And we’ll keep saying it: the more symbols that are created the more useless the entire warning light system becomes.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

Our Collision Warning and Intervention page is here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/collision-warning-and-intervention-system-indicators-now-number-29/

Lane keeping assist page swells to 33 entries

Lane keeping assist

Lane Keeping Assist page now hold 33 entries. This comes courtesy of Mazda, which calls its system Emergency Lane Keeping (ELK), growing the number of name options to 10, because of course, why use a single name for the same system!

Emergency lane keeping offLane Departure System OffSeveral manufacturers use the first image to the right to indicate that lane keeping is off. But why use an existing symbol when you can make your own! The new symbol from Mazda is to the far right, and adds an arrow in the direction of travel and a star to suggest a collision. It also removes a lane line.

None of these change are necessary in our opinion, and simply continues to swell the opportunities to confuse drivers.

The more symbols that are created the more useless the entire warning light system becomes.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

Our Lane Keeping Assist page is here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/lane-keeping-assist-page-swells-to-33-entries/

Mazda symbols page joins the new color presentation change list

Mazda logoMazda symbols page

In advance of an update of our Mazda symbols page, we thought it would be prudent to rearrange the page by color, as we have been doing with all our dashboard symbols pages over the last several weeks.

The process for the Mazda page is now complete. Beginning with our primary symbols page, we’ve have now transformed over a dozen pages to reflect the new color ordering.

The page features a number over 70 indicators, now ordered red through black, white or gray scale. This generally provides a “mostly serious” to “simply letting you know” range. We used the term “mostly serious” for red indicators because many legacy red symbols do not point to a problem with the vehicle.

Regardless, the new ordering provides a cleaner, simpler option for drivers searching for information.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

The Mazda symbols page can be found here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/mazda-symbols-page-joins-the-new-color-presentation-change-list/

Why the alarm sounds when using the mechanical key belonging to the proper vehicle!

Dead fob iconUsing the mechanical key

We just dropped a video on YouTube discussing why using the mechanical key sets off the alarm in the vehicle the key belongs to! We discussed it in a post earlier here, but thought we should inform our subscribers.

We note in the middle of our videos that the alarm may sound, but are embarrassed that we didn’t warn viewers from the start! We do now…

We are considered re-doing every video in our collection, but won’t. It would actually hurt the channel, as each video’s views would be lost. What we will do is offer a warning in each write-up and hopefully help avoid scaring the living daylights out of everyone…

Smart Keys or Intelligent Keys, or Access Keys – or whatever the manufacturer of your chooses to call them – that let you into your car and start it with just a touch use up their internal batteries at alarming rates, catching busy drivers unawares – even though the car had tried to warn you.

Our goal is to help you feel safe – and keep you moving or get you moving if at all possible – rather than leave you fretting whenever your key fob stops working. The instructions for getting into and starting most keyless start cars can be found on our pages – without roadside assistance.

We added the video to our video page here and the YouTube link is here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/why-the-alarm-sounds-when-using-the-mechanical-key-belonging-to-the-proper-vehicle/

Mazda back up start review finds no changes

Mazda logoMazda back up start

A full review of 2025 models results in no changes to the Mazda back up start page. All Mazda models use the tried and true “push the start/stop button with the back of the key fob to start the vehicles. In fact all the company’s models have used this simple and sane method since 2016.

As the battery in the key fob weakens, and it will at some point, the vehicle produces Back up starta notice on the instrument panel pointing this out. However, everyone’s busy lives often result in putting replacing the battery in the fob until “tomorrow” or, because we are inundated with information from everywhere, the notice may simply be missed.

This is where a back-up start method is necessary. And welcome!

Smart Keys or Intelligent Keys, or Access Keys – or whatever the manufacturer of your chooses to call them – that let you into your car and start it with just a touch use up their internal batteries at alarming rates, catching busy drivers unawares – even though the car had tried to warn you.

Our goal is to help you feel safe – and keep you moving or get you moving if at all possible – rather than leave you fretting whenever your key fob stops working. The instructions for getting into and starting most keyless start cars can be found on our pages – without roadside assistance.

You can see the Mazda back up start page here, which includes information on pre-2016 models.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/mazda-back-up-start-review-finds-no-changes/

Mazda back up entry update results in only minor changes

Mazda logoMazda back up entry

A full review of 2025 models results in only minor changes to the Mazda back up entry page. The CX-50 and CX-90 models now feature the same updated door handle as the CX-30 and Mazda3 have had since 2020.

With this door handle, the key hole is revealed when the driver’s door handle is pulled to the open position. So, if the battery in the key fob is weak or dead, a Mazda driver will need to use the mechanical key in the exposed key hole (right).Mazda door handle

The CX-5 key hole remains visible at the back of the driver’s door handle. Time will tell if the model gets the updated and sleeker handle.

Smart Keys or Intelligent Keys, or Access Keys – or whatever the manufacturer of your chooses to call them – that let you into your car and start it with just a touch use up their internal batteries at alarming rates, catching busy drivers unawares – even though the car had tried to warn you.

Our goal is to help you feel safe – and keep you moving or get you moving if at all possible – rather than leave you fretting whenever your key fob stops working. The instructions for getting into and starting most keyless start cars can be found on our pages – without roadside assistance.

You can see the Mazda back up entry page here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/mazda-back-up-entry-update-results-in-only-minor-changes/