About that "yoke" steering wheel

[NorthStar7]

As a follow up, my decision is based on personal preference and not necessarily on concerns over safety. While it may be something that is easy-ish to adapt to and relatively safe, only time will tell. I'm willing to wait.

i think you made the right call. This reminds me of Apple removing function keys for the Touch Bar thingy and pushing everything to dongles…..why? It’s almost like the designers have wagers to see how far the sheep will follow them.

I would try it, but I doubt I would thrown down cash for half a steering wheel and no dedicated stalks.

 

[Rockford]

Better visibility to the instrument cluster.

How many times have you found yourself craning or lowering your neck trying to look at your instrument cluster? Myself personally that figure would be zero. I can only think it would be an issue if you were a basketball player and quite tall?

 

[MarcG]

How many times have you found yourself craning or lowering your neck trying to look at your instrument cluster? Myself personally that figure would be zero. I can only think it would be an issue if you were a basketball player and quite tall?

I like my steering wheel nice and low, so in my S I had a hard time seeing the top of the screen (especially the warning bar before AP kicked you out). And the S steering wheel was gigantic, I much prefer the model 3’s wheel. It would be very difficult to see the new, larger IC with a wheel from the 3 though. So I think that’s why the yoke exists, and what problem it solves.

 

[kizamybute']

I've never used crutches before, but if I am forced to buy to use them, I'll learn to do that just fine because others can do it already so I'll be able to do it!

Humans are adaptable so even though the yoke is an inconvenience with half of the rounded wheel is chopped off, I think you'll learn how to work with less just fine.

True, but for $140,000+, I don't want to have to "just live with it". Not going to settle for several things I can't stand just because it's a "Tesla". Love Elon's innovation, but, this car is an example of taking it too far too soon.

 

[David_Cary]

I like the argument that this is a publicity stunt and nothing more. There really aren't that many $140k buyers when Tesla took $140k down to $100k in a year just 2-3 years ago. There aren't that many $140k buyers even without that history. Most of the $140k buyers I know think a Yoke is cool - they are classic "boys with their toys". Different for the sake of being different. Like a race car. Etc.
The masses won't risk a yoke. The masses don't really want to risk the stalks either. Not sure what will happen with that.
And by masses, I of course mean the 10% that drive $60-$100k cars. (myself included in this group). Certainly room to make the Y a bit more upmarket and maybe a stretched lux 3 to satisfy the round wheel ludites but no new Tesla available today that I am perfectly happy with (unlike my 2015).

 

[BigNick]

IMO Tesla could have "harmonized" their controls across all models by making the new S controls just like those of the 3 and Y. One stalk on each side of the column, two roller balls on the wheel, using right stalk and roller to control TACC/Autosteer/"FSD".

That would have made all "standard" four-door Tesla models feel familiar and intuitive. The Roadster, by its nature could have been more "out there" with experimental controls.

I've not driven a new S yet, but I test drove a 3 last weekend after about 3.5 years of driving only an S (and one day of a loaner X, back when loaners were readily available) and the new 3 was relatively intuitive compared to the 2015 S, as its turn signals, horn, and even manual wiper control were all the same. TACC/AP was different from the S but I was able to adapt to that easily.

 

[kizamybute']

I agree with BigNick, these types of features are suited well for the Roadster. That car will likely be the weekend car for most well-off people and practicality will not be on their list of must haves. How much of a pain in the rear is it take out a Lambo or Ferrari? They're fun and cool, but a pain in the ass to drive in the real world. A sedan and SUV intended for mass daily use shouldn't be put into that category.

 

[Bill Price]

I like my steering wheel nice and low, so in my S I had a hard time seeing the top of the screen (especially the warning bar before AP kicked you out). And the S steering wheel was gigantic, I much prefer the model 3’s wheel. It would be very difficult to see the new, larger IC with a wheel from the 3 though. So I think that’s why the yoke exists, and what problem it solves.

For me, at 6' 2" it solves nothing and presents the problem turning at low speeds. When they can bring variable ratio driven by speed to the table, that might solve it. Until then, I look forward to a round wheel.

 

[Mirlen]

I'm glad they messed with the wheel and ruined it with a yoke, saves me $100k!

 

[DayTrippin]

I hope they will have an option other than the yoke by the time my S arrives. I would much prefer a wheel. As others suggested integrate it off the 3/Y platform. I can't complain too much about it on my Y.

 

[whitex]

I'd just like to point out that there was much rendering of clothes and gnashing of teeth when Steve Jobs/Apple:

• Removed SCSI and Parallel ports in favor of this new-fangled "Universal Serial Bus"
• Removed diskette drives (remember those?)
• Removed CDROM drives (remember those??)
• Deleted all laptop ports except for USB-C/Thunderbolt
• Removed the physical keyboard from smartphones (omg what!!)

all of which were going to be doom, DOOOOOM for everyone! Run for your lives! But I think this all turned out OK in the end.


TL;DR: visionaries are a PITA sometimes

Remember when Steve Jobs believed "nobody will ever need copy and paste on a phone" and first iPhones in fact did not allow copy/paste functionality? It worked out OK in the end, iPhone got copy/paste. Perhaps the yoke will work out the same way and Teslas will get round wheels.

 

[Hayseed_MS]

Better visibility to the instrument cluster.

Not arguing for it or against it at this point but this is a legitimate point for me. Maybe weird but that is the way it is for me.

 

[DayTrippin]

Remember when Steve Jobs believed "nobody will ever need copy and paste on a phone" and first iPhones in fact did not allow copy/paste functionality? It worked out OK in the end, iPhone got copy/paste. Perhaps the yoke will work out the same way and Teslas will get round wheels.

I had one of those early iPhone and the lack of copy and paste caused me to dump that platform for some time. It was just such a major blunder that I thought what else did they screw up. Didn't buy another iPhone until the 7 series and mainly did that because of the camera. I hope they go back to the round wheel soon. I've been driving for way too many decades and my muscle memory is trained for a round wheel in an emergency situation.

Or make it less than 1 turn lock to lock. Doubt that is happening either.

 

[David29]

IMO Tesla could have "harmonized" their controls across all models by making the new S controls just like those of the 3 and Y. One stalk on each side of the column, two roller balls on the wheel, using right stalk and roller to control TACC/Autosteer/"FSD".

That would have made all "standard" four-door Tesla models feel familiar and intuitive. The Roadster, by its nature could have been more "out there" with experimental controls.

I've not driven a new S yet, but I test drove a 3 last weekend after about 3.5 years of driving only an S (and one day of a loaner X, back when loaners were readily available) and the new 3 was relatively intuitive compared to the 2015 S, as its turn signals, horn, and even manual wiper control were all the same. TACC/AP was different from the S but I was able to adapt to that easily.

Excellent point about common approach across the models in the lineup. This has been a hallmark of brands such as Mercedes for many years. I drove MBs for many, many years, and could usually have moved from one model to another with very little adaptation. I will admit that this has become more difficult in recent years with the increasing complexity of cars, more buttons on the steering wheel, and so on. But most of the basic controls that you need to use routinely are right where they have always been.
By the way, I well remember when Mercedes interchanged the positions of the turn signal and cruise control stalk, in about 2014 or 2015. There were howls of protest, both in the Mercedes community and among Tesla buyers. (Tesla was using the E class Mercedes steering assemblies at the time.) There were arguments for and against the change. Yes, we got used to it (I went from a Benz with the old arrangement to the 2015 Model S with the new one) but it took some adjustment. This was a fairly simple change compared to what Tesla is doing now with removing the stalks entirely.
I wonder if the plan is to remove the stalks from all the Tesla cars? That would standardize the lineup. I still would object but at least there would be some consistency within the brand. Inconsistency with most of the rest of the world would remain...hmmm.

 

[DayTrippin]

I can understand doing things their own way, if it truly has a benefit equal to, or greater than the change required. I would think that if you are trying to get new buyers into Teslas from other makes, you would want to minimize the friction where doing so. This is really important during a test drive where people don't have a lot of time to become familiar with the car's controls. Make it too challenging and you might overshadow the rest of the cars attributes if the test driver can't easily access them.

I know it was a bit challenging for my wife during our test drives. If there was much more of a learning curve than there already was and I don't think she would have been on board and we'd probably have ended up with an MME and the MB EQS or Taycan instead. I am pretty sure she isn't going to be a fan of the yoke when the MS shows up.

 

[sillydriver]

From the article on plaid in today's WSJ:

"But on a planet with parking decks and drive-thrus, the yoke is a visionary pain in the ass. It is actually quite hard to turn from lock-to-lock with one hand, as you might if you had just bought a cup of coffee in the drive-thru; or if attempting a three-point turn, using the touchscreen-based gear selector. The steering’s re-centering force is sufficient to make the yoke slip from your grip. Nor can you steer for even a second with your knee. The capacitive turn signal switches on the yoke are terrible. My error rate was about 80%."

But they did love the performance ...

 

[SK360]

From the article on plaid in today's WSJ:

"But on a planet with parking decks and drive-thrus, the yoke is a visionary pain in the ass. It is actually quite hard to turn from lock-to-lock with one hand, as you might if you had just bought a cup of coffee in the drive-thru; or if attempting a three-point turn, using the touchscreen-based gear selector. The steering’s re-centering force is sufficient to make the yoke slip from your grip. Nor can you steer for even a second with your knee. The capacitive turn signal switches on the yoke are terrible. My error rate was about 80%."

But they did love the performance ...

Much like Elons refusal to add waypoints... these are decisions seemingly being made by a guy that has no experience in the actual world.

 

[smogne41]

As a fan of manual driving, I will never buy a car that lacks stalks and a round-ish wheel. I don't care if some people can get accustomed to it, it is still a fundamentally less capable, more cumbersome, more frustrating, and less safe driver interface for operating a road car. Sure extensive independent testing has really not been done yet, but it will and most of us know what the results will be. The choice of capacitive buttons on the wheel is especially hilarious given how flaky those things are. Hell, the horrible 80's bubble keyboards are probably just as good, but you are just trading missed presses for phantom presses.

The good news is that if Tesla were to put a yolk+stalk delete in the 3/Y they would no longer be production constrained

 

[CyberGus]

ELON, TAKE THE WHEEL!

 

[David29]

I can understand doing things their own way, if it truly has a benefit equal to, or greater than the change required. I would think that if you are trying to get new buyers into Teslas from other makes, you would want to minimize the friction where doing so. This is really important during a test drive where people don't have a lot of time to become familiar with the car's controls. Make it too challenging and you might overshadow the rest of the cars attributes if the test driver can't easily access them.

I know it was a bit challenging for my wife during our test drives. If there was much more of a learning curve than there already was and I don't think she would have been on board and we'd probably have ended up with an MME and the MB EQS or Taycan instead. I am pretty sure she isn't going to be a fan of the yoke when the MS shows up.

Excellent point! When I go to EV events and offer my car for people to drive, I always tell them that it "drives like any other car," that they can ignore the center screen for their first drive, and just use the controls they are accustomed to -- steering wheel, turn signals, brake, gear shift, and accelerator. That allows them to focus on the driving experience, and not get distracted by the screen and the many electronic features. This has always worked well. The only item that sometimes confuses folks a little bit at first is the shifter, because it does not stay in place and feels a bit different. But after making one or two shifts, most people get the hang of it. And of course, at least the shifter is where people expect to find it, and some other cars have similar shifters now.
Driving the stalkless yoke cars will not be so intuitive. It will be a brave person who allows the general public to drive his or her Plaid car....or more realistically, I would say that owners will need to do more careful explaining before they allow someone unfamiliar with the car to drive.