The invention discloses a method for automatically identifying an instrument pointer. The method comprises the steps: acquiring an image of an instrument panel, performing binary processing on the image of instrument panel, selecting one point in a preset area of the instrument panel, taking the point as the center to search a pointer, performing point-to-point scanning in the area, finding the most appropriate pointer rotating shaft position and a corresponding pointer direction, and obtaining pointer reading according to a corresponding pointer angle. The method can effectively identify reading of a pointer type instrument, and is relatively robust and rapid compared with a mode that a Hough change is used to search a straight line; even if the image has a certain non-rotation offset, the pointer direction can still be found accurately, and the instrument reading is obtained.