Q: Wouldn't it be more distracting to look in the center instead of in the straight ahead Point of View? Just curious.
A: Distracting? no. You get used to its location pretty quickly after driving a car like that for a little bit. Supposedly, the instrumentation is placed up and in the center position to help with eye focus times. For some people, it may even be in their peripheral vision, so no refocusing is necessary. For most people, it is faster/easier to focus from the road (long distance) to the center cluster (closer) and back to the road, as opposed to the road/behind the steering wheel (even closer location)/back to road. Faster focusing times means less time for your eyes off of the road. Faster focusing times also means less night-blindness, too. And for some people and car designs, having the instrumentation in the center cluster just makes it easier to view as opposed to it hiding behind the steering wheel. You don't have to peek behind the steering wheel, or wait to complete a turn where the steering wheel is blocking your view of the instrumentation hiding behind it.