I've seen a few cars with a 'digital' speed display but never driven one.
The karrank% family Prius has a digital speedo. Took almost 6 seconds to get used to it and can 'capture' speeds when accelerating/slowing no worse than with analogue. Probably better. An EFIS display with a digital readout and a slide bar would be best.
Your mate is heading for problems if he lands on TAS.