March 7, 1985

In the days of tail fins and bumper-to-bumper chrome, Detroit's auto makers did not worry about speedometers that were hard to read or control knobs that were hard to reach. But they are worrying now. In the late 1970's, foreign competitors upstaged the three major auto companies in both design and performance. So today Detroit's automotive styling studios are designing interiors in the image of imported models. Chrome and fake wood are on their way out. Nonreflective surfaces and a high- tech look are in. That is not all. The car companies have been asking themselves basic questions about the way they lay out dashboards, which they prefer to call ''instrument panels.'' Are digital speedometers better than conventional ones? Should horn buttons be placed on steering wheels or on turn- signal levers? What is the best place for the headlight and windshield- wiper controls? Do knobs or sliding switches make the best heater controls? Does it make sense to mount the radio or heater controls vertically instead of horizontally?

A group of some of the largest banks in the New York area said yesterday that they had joined in a three- state network that will allow millions of customers to use automated teller machines of any member bank. Known as the New York Cash Exchange, or N.Y.C.E., the system initially permits customers of five New York banks - Chemical Bank, the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, Marine Midland Bank, The Bank of New York and Barclays Bank of New York - as well as the Union Trust Company, based in Stamford, Conn., to make cash withdrawals and balance inquiries at any of the group's automated teller machines. For customers of those banks, the service is available today. The National Westminster Bank U.S.A. and Goldome customers will gain access to the network within the next few weeks. More than 75 other banks in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, including the Chase Manhattan Bank, have signed letters of intent to join the group, said Leonard E. Malkin, a vice president at Manufacturers Hanover who serves as chairman of N.Y.C.E. All banks in the region are permitted to join, he added.

A new report by a private group asserts that over the last three years, rebels from one of the organizations seeking to overthrow the Nicaraguan Government have engaged in a pattern of attacks and atrocities against civilian targets. A preliminary draft copy, made available here, gives details of 28 incidents that it says ''have resulted in assassination, torture, rape, kidnapping and mutilation of civilians.'' Four of the 28 incidents were chosen at random and witnesses were independently interviewed by The New York Times. These interviews seemed to verify some of the details in the report. The new report, prepared by a three- member team headed by Reed Brody, a former New York State Assistant Attorney General, is based on interviews conducted in Nicaragua between September 1984 and January 1985. It is to be officially released in Washington on Thursday.

The Reagan Administration told Congress today that Israel had failed so far to make enough progress in its economic recovery plan for the United States to meet its request for a major increase in economic aid. Facing a House subcomittee that was virtually unanimous in advocating approval of the $2.6 billion sought by Israel in new funds, the State Department's senior economic official said the new money would be wasted. He said it would ''disappear quickly'' because of Israel's failure to cope adequately with budgetary and fiscal problems. Israel received $1.2 billion in economic aid and $1.4 billion in military aid for the 1985 fiscal year, which began last Oct. 1. It has asked, said W. Allen Wallis, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, for $800 million as a supplemental economic grant for 1985 and $1.8 billion in economic aid for the 1986 fiscal year.

The weapons envisioned for President Reagan's defensive shield against ballistic missile attack could be used with devastating effect offensively, according to many supporters and critics of Mr. Reagan's program. The President's Strategic Defense Initiative, known popularly as ''Star Wars,'' would not use weapons of mass destruction, like the current nuclear arsenals, that could obliterate tens of millions of people, the experts agree. But the same experts, in government, industry and the universities, say the proposed defensive system, if it is actually built and deployed at full strength, could serve several major offensive functions, including these: - It could be used as a defensive adjunct to an offensive nuclear attack, allowing nuclear-armed missiles to be launched in an offensive strike while the defense is held in reserve to cope with any retaliatory strike, according to arms-control experts. - It could attack and destroy enemy space satellites, which are generally far easier targets than the ballistic missiles the system would be designed to intercept, according to experts assembled by the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. Satellites have become an increasingly important part of the military systems of the United States and the Soviet Union.