AT check light, most gauges went dead. Fine after restart so far

The AT check light came on, speedo inop, tach inop, temp gauge inop, display for gear selected (P,R, N D or manual) went blank. Car seemed to be driving normally. Upon restart everything behaved normally - so far. Any idea what went wrong and how to prevent this in the future. Also, intermittently the ABS, Slip, VDC off lights illuminate. Is this a related problem? Thanks.