Why are car thermometers so inaccurate when the car’s been sitting in the sun?

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I’m at the point where I completely disregard any car’s outdoor temperature sensor. In hot days when the car’s been in the sun, they seem to all way overestimate the temperature compared to what the weather app says it is.

I get that the sun will heat up the car and since the thermometer sensor is on the car that heats up too. But what stops them adding some protection measure to the thermometer to avoid this, so that we can get accurate outdoor air temperature readings?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Where I work we have to calibrate our themometers once a month to make sure they remain accurate. This is because they are used in the cooking and preparing of food.

Bearing in mind that car themometers were probably only calibrated once at the time the car was built, I would assume that the themometers in cars were not that accurate to begin with, and will only become less accurate over time.

Obviously it doesn’t matter so much with car themometers, car themometers tend to go up by a degree or maybe half a degree at a time. Food themometers are often to two decimel points, but that’s because poorly cooked food can kill you, whereas if a car says it is 10 degrees and it is actually 12 degrees it doesn’t make much difference.

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