An honest review of the yoke

[4SUPER9]

I do find many of these comments interesting in that most of the things that are on the yolk as it exists are nothing new. I can remember several cars that I had having a small horn button on either side of the wheel at 3:00 and 9:00. I also have had cars with a rim blow horn where you actually squeezed the steering wheel. I had another with the horn that was actually actuated by the turn signal stalk by pushing it in.

Additionally all the crazy videos with people having their arms twisted up like pretzels trying to make turns clearly over dramatizing the situation. Why not just drive it like a steering wheel put the heel of your hand on the wheel and spin it around as needed when in close quarters such as parking situations and such. We've been doing this for decades this really is not a big deal.

I've driven some weird crap in my nearly 50 years of driving. In my opinion most are making a mountain out of a molehill. Yes you'll have to adapt a bit, muscle memory will change, and in no time most will be cruising around with their yolks wondering why all cars aren't controlled with a steering yoke instead of a steering wheel.

While some of your points seem valid (I find use of the yoke enjoyable) I am more interested in knowing how many of those other cars you drove with weird car horns are still in existence today, and whether any of those horns ever even made it into a revised model. Any of them? My guess is no. They all failed for a reason: they sucked. Tesla should never have repeated the same mistake that others made all those years ago.

 

[tccartier]

While some of your points seem valid (I find use of the yoke enjoyable) I am more interested in knowing how many of those other cars you drove with weird car horns are still in existence today, and whether any of those horns ever even made it into a revised model. Any of them? My guess is no. They all failed for a reason: they sucked. Tesla should never have repeated the same mistake that others made all those years ago.

Well I get that you're trying to make a dramatic point. But there are many things in automobiles that went away not because they were non-functional or sucked "as you say", but just because interior design and user interface trends moved on. I remember the 1965 mustang had three distinct buttons to blow the horn basically at 10:00 2:00 and 6:00 and of course like most they were subject to being anywhere during steering wheel rotation,don't recall anybody being up in arms about that.

I now have a touch screen in my car that controls most all functions. I don't have that because buttons and knobs sucked or were somehow no good. It's just the next big thing to have that's all. Now many vehicles are beginning to gravitate in that direction.

Many automotive trends are just a product of their time. Also gone are tail fins, fender skirts, velor seats vinyl tops. All of which were the rage in their day and there wasn't anything wrong with them they just pretty much went out of style.

 

[4SUPER9]

Well I get that you're trying to make a dramatic point. But there are many things in automobiles that went away not because they were non-functional or sucked "as you say", but just because interior design and user interface trends moved on. I remember the 1965 mustang had three distinct buttons to blow the horn basically at 10:00 2:00 and 6:00 and of course like most they were subject to being anywhere during steering wheel rotation,don't recall anybody being up in arms about that.

I now have a touch screen in my car that controls most all functions. I don't have that because buttons and knobs sucked or were somehow no good. It's just the next big thing to have that's all. Now many vehicles are beginning to gravitate in that direction.

Many automotive trends are just a product of their time. Also gone are tail fins, fender skirts, velor seats vinyl tops. All of which were the rage in their day and there wasn't anything wrong with them they just pretty much went out of style.

You probably did not hear many people complaining because there was no Internet back in 1965. We are not talking about some insignificant interior feature here, such as controls to open up the trunk, side-view mirrors, etc. There is one, and only one, button on the steering wheel that is not only critical, but legally designated as an emergency feature, and that is the horn button. In spite of me having this vehicle for six months now, and still trying to keep myself mentally prepared to use it, I still have difficulty. I was in a very dangerous situation just two days ago, when some idiot changed lanes into me on a freeway on-ramp. I tried to slam on the horn button and simply could not. Perhaps if I had several different buttons to choose from, that would’ve worked. Instead, I had to try to reach for a haptic button with my thumb, which I did, and still, not be able to honk. And yes, I did try putting my hand over the entire right control panel, but again, that has not proven reliable. By the time I hit the brakes and swerved onto the shoulder, I was able to honk: a clear 5 seconds too late.

 

[lbowroom]

You probably did not hear many people complaining because there was no Internet back in 1965. We are not talking about some insignificant interior feature here, such as controls to open up the trunk, side-view mirrors, etc. There is one, and only one, button on the steering wheel that is not only critical, but legally designated as an emergency feature, and that is the horn button. In spite of me having this vehicle for six months now, and still trying to keep myself mentally prepared to use it, I still have difficulty. I was in a very dangerous situation just two days ago, when some idiot changed lanes into me on a freeway on-ramp. I tried to slam on the horn button and simply could not. Perhaps if I had several different buttons to choose from, that would’ve worked. Instead, I had to try to reach for a haptic button with my thumb, which I did, and still, not be able to honk. And yes, I did try putting my hand over the entire right control panel, but again, that has not proven reliable. By the time I hit the brakes and swerved onto the shoulder, I was able to honk: a clear 5 seconds too late.

It’s always a question of do I honk at this fool or do I simply avoid hitting him

 

[Laddcruzer]

I do find many of these comments interesting in that most of the things that are on the yolk as it exists are nothing new. I can remember several cars that I had having a small horn button on either side of the wheel at 3:00 and 9:00. I also have had cars with a rim blow horn where you actually squeezed the steering wheel. I had another with the horn that was actually actuated by the turn signal stalk by pushing it in.

Additionally all the crazy videos with people having their arms twisted up like pretzels trying to make turns clearly over dramatizing the situation. Why not just drive it like a steering wheel put the heel of your hand on the wheel and spin it around as needed when in close quarters such as parking situations and such. We've been doing this for decades this really is not a big deal.

I've driven some weird crap in my nearly 50 years of driving. In my opinion most are making a mountain out of a molehill. Yes you'll have to adapt a bit, muscle memory will change, and in no time most will be cruising around with their yolks wondering why all cars aren't controlled with a steering yoke instead of a steering wheel.

As someone with 60 years of driving I agree with most of what you say. But I still want a center located airbag horn.

 

[DayTrippin]

I do find many of these comments interesting in that most of the things that are on the yolk as it exists are nothing new. I can remember several cars that I had having a small horn button on either side of the wheel at 3:00 and 9:00. I also have had cars with a rim blow horn where you actually squeezed the steering wheel. I had another with the horn that was actually actuated by the turn signal stalk by pushing it in.

Additionally all the crazy videos with people having their arms twisted up like pretzels trying to make turns clearly over dramatizing the situation. Why not just drive it like a steering wheel put the heel of your hand on the wheel and spin it around as needed when in close quarters such as parking situations and such. We've been doing this for decades this really is not a big deal.

I've driven some weird crap in my nearly 50 years of driving. In my opinion most are making a mountain out of a molehill. Yes you'll have to adapt a bit, muscle memory will change, and in no time most will be cruising around with their yolks wondering why all cars aren't controlled with a steering yoke instead of a steering wheel.

Some fair points and at the same time, there is a reason we have standardization. Why should I have retrain my muscle memory, or remember each car I drive because Tesla made a crappy design decision? It isn't like I might need to adjust the AC controls once in a while. Even that, I can use voice commands to do a lot. But every minute I am driving the car, I am touching the wheel/yoke. I get absolutely NO benefit from having a yoke, especially in its current iteration.

As for the funny pretzel movements, the yoke is pretty wide. Depending on your arm/seating position, it is easy to palm it and turn. I thought about one of the '50's era spinners but it didn't work well on the yoke. I've tried the palm on wheel technique and it really doesn't work that well on how I have the controls setup when I drive. The car should adapt to me, not the other way around.

I grew up doing a lot of adaption for vehicles in my half century of driving. I drove right hand (RHD) drive cars, I drove RHD cars on the left side of the rode. Add in LHD drive cars on the other side of the road. I rode motorcycles where the gearshift lever was on the right, and the brake on the left. Then motorcycles where that was reversed; shift on the left, brake on the right. Then different gearshift patters, 3 - up, 4-down, 1 down, 3,4,5,6 up, or down 1-2-3-4 and back to neutral after 4th gear instead of stopping. Then add in my really old bikes with foot clutches and hand shifters. Or cars where I had to manually adjust timing and so on. Then of course cars with all the shifting variations, with floor shifters, 3 on the tree, reverse opposite of first, dual range gear boxes and more.

I adapted to all these. With several of those combinations, there are safety implications and there are with the current version of the yoke if you don't just drive with the yoke all the time. Using my muscle memory in an emergency situation could have killed me. While riding with a friend in Ireland, it almost killed him when we were riding together. We met a lorry on a one lane bridge with little warning, he went right, I went left, the lorry went left (for him) our right and my friend collided head on and I escaped because I was able to override my muscle memory/reflexes for driving on the right hand side of the road at the last minute.

If I ONLY drove my S, it might have less of an impact. I could retrain my muscles to know there is now top part of the wheel and the bottom is flat and alter my touch points. Every time I go back to some other car it goes backward. Heaven help me if my wife needs to drive the S and encounters an emergency situation. This is not going to be a pretty outcome.

IMHO - this was a totally unforced error on Tesla's part. I don't know why there wasn't more involvement or review by the NHTSA. I don't hake yokes in general. I flew with them for 20 years. I don't mind retraining if there is some significant benefit. Or if there is no other way, and this is the best of bad options.

I come from an engineering background and it didn't have to be this way. This is the one single area I have tremendous buyer's remorse about. Not enough to sell the car yet, but enough to impact my future purchasing thought process. If I were to consider another Tesla, and it had the same subpar yoke and control implementation (lack of stalks), I'd be in the camp of a hard pass.

Put in a yoke with variable ratio power steering reducing the number of turns lock to lock or a well thought out drive by wire system, improve the design of the yoke itself (doesn't need to be so big, put controls on the back of the wheel too, not just jam everything on the front and even Dodge does it better here) bring the stalks back or put more thought into the current idiotic gear selector implementation and I'd sell my refreshed in a heartbeat. With these changes I'd take the yoke over the wheel.

 

[Laddcruzer]

Some fair points and at the same time, there is a reason we have standardization. Why should I have retrain my muscle memory, or remember each car I drive because Tesla made a crappy design decision? It isn't like I might need to adjust the AC controls once in a while. Even that, I can use voice commands to do a lot. But every minute I am driving the car, I am touching the wheel/yoke. I get absolutely NO benefit from having a yoke, especially in its current iteration.

As for the funny pretzel movements, the yoke is pretty wide. Depending on your arm/seating position, it is easy to palm it and turn. I thought about one of the '50's era spinners but it didn't work well on the yoke. I've tried the palm on wheel technique and it really doesn't work that well on how I have the controls setup when I drive. The car should adapt to me, not the other way around.

I grew up doing a lot of adaption for vehicles in my half century of driving. I drove right hand (RHD) drive cars, I drove RHD cars on the left side of the rode. Add in LHD drive cars on the other side of the road. I rode motorcycles where the gearshift lever was on the right, and the brake on the left. Then motorcycles where that was reversed; shift on the left, brake on the right. Then different gearshift patters, 3 - up, 4-down, 1 down, 3,4,5,6 up, or down 1-2-3-4 and back to neutral after 4th gear instead of stopping. Then add in my really old bikes with foot clutches and hand shifters. Or cars where I had to manually adjust timing and so on. Then of course cars with all the shifting variations, with floor shifters, 3 on the tree, reverse opposite of first, dual range gear boxes and more.

I adapted to all these. With several of those combinations, there are safety implications and there are with the current version of the yoke if you don't just drive with the yoke all the time. Using my muscle memory in an emergency situation could have killed me. While riding with a friend in Ireland, it almost killed him when we were riding together. We met a lorry on a one lane bridge with little warning, he went right, I went left, the lorry went left (for him) our right and my friend collided head on and I escaped because I was able to override my muscle memory/reflexes for driving on the right hand side of the road at the last minute.

If I ONLY drove my S, it might have less of an impact. I could retrain my muscles to know there is now top part of the wheel and the bottom is flat and alter my touch points. Every time I go back to some other car it goes backward. Heaven help me if my wife needs to drive the S and encounters an emergency situation. This is not going to be a pretty outcome.

IMHO - this was a totally unforced error on Tesla's part. I don't know why there wasn't more involvement or review by the NHTSA. I don't hake yokes in general. I flew with them for 20 years. I don't mind retraining if there is some significant benefit. Or if there is no other way, and this is the best of bad options.

I come from an engineering background and it didn't have to be this way. This is the one single area I have tremendous buyer's remorse about. Not enough to sell the car yet, but enough to impact my future purchasing thought process. If I were to consider another Tesla, and it had the same subpar yoke and control implementation (lack of stalks), I'd be in the camp of a hard pass.

Put in a yoke with variable ratio power steering reducing the number of turns lock to lock or a well thought out drive by wire system, improve the design of the yoke itself (doesn't need to be so big, put controls on the back of the wheel too, not just jam everything on the front and even Dodge does it better here) bring the stalks back or put more thought into the current idiotic gear selector implementation and I'd sell my refreshed in a heartbeat. With these changes I'd take the yoke over the wheel.

So you’re OK with a little horn button located where it is?

 

[lbowroom]

So you’re OK with a little horn button located where it is?

Define OK with it

 

[Laddcruzer]

Define OK with it

You wouldn’t want a centrally located air bag horn or voice activated horn.

 

[DayTrippin]

So you’re OK with a little horn button located where it is?

I think it was a French car I had, the horn was on the end of the turn signal stalk.

As for the S, I find if I smash my entire hand in the general vicinity of it, it will work. I can't say I am ok with it but it isn't as bad as just having a tiny horn button. I think most aspect of the yoke design are a total cluster.

 

[SO16]

You probably did not hear many people complaining because there was no Internet back in 1965. We are not talking about some insignificant interior feature here, such as controls to open up the trunk, side-view mirrors, etc. There is one, and only one, button on the steering wheel that is not only critical, but legally designated as an emergency feature, and that is the horn button. In spite of me having this vehicle for six months now, and still trying to keep myself mentally prepared to use it, I still have difficulty. I was in a very dangerous situation just two days ago, when some idiot changed lanes into me on a freeway on-ramp. I tried to slam on the horn button and simply could not. Perhaps if I had several different buttons to choose from, that would’ve worked. Instead, I had to try to reach for a haptic button with my thumb, which I did, and still, not be able to honk. And yes, I did try putting my hand over the entire right control panel, but again, that has not proven reliable. By the time I hit the brakes and swerved onto the shoulder, I was able to honk: a clear 5 seconds too late.

I agree the horn should be in the center. But I have had other vehicles that did not have a center horn either. Dodge Intrepid for one. Mercury sable for another. Both had smaller buttons on the side of the steering wheel.

 

[strider]

Doesn't help w/ the horn (I mashed the airbag just yesterday trying to alert a moron who was turning into me - I was able to stop in time), but I am thrilled with my Hansshow wheel.

 

[Laddcruzer]

Doesn't help w/ the horn (I mashed the airbag just yesterday trying to alert a moron who was turning into me - I was able to stop in time), but I am thrilled with my Hansshow wheel.

Nice! Love the CF. That wheel should make things easier and safer. Good show!

 

[lbowroom]

You wouldn’t want a centrally located air bag horn or voice activated horn.

I would like that. Not voice, but center. However I knew it wasn’t there when I bought it and I still bought it and haven’t sold it. I guess that makes me ok with it.

 

[DayTrippin]

Doesn't help w/ the horn (I mashed the airbag just yesterday trying to alert a moron who was turning into me - I was able to stop in time), but I am thrilled with my Hansshow wheel.

I have seriously been considering that wheel. Nice to see the view through the wheel doesn't obscure the dash. How wide is it, same as stock yoke? Steering wheel heat still work?

I was concerned about the center stripe driving me crazy if the alignment wasn't right.

 

[lbowroom]

I have seriously been considering that wheel. Nice to see the view through the wheel doesn't obscure the dash. How wide is it, same as stock yoke? Steering wheel heat still work?

I was concerned about the center stripe driving me crazy if the alignment wasn't right.

Not sure about the non-obstruction claim. That vantage point is pretty low, barely high enough to see out of the windshield.

 

[FlatSix911]

It’s always a question of do I honk at this fool or do I simply avoid hitting him

I suppose that the button serves as a device to promote courtesy toward other drivers.

 

[DayTrippin]

I give up with the yoke. It is a total buzzkill for me every time I want to drive the car in a spirited manner or even just getting out of my garage into the tight alley behind it.

I went ahead and ordered the Hansshow wheel in all black Napa leather. Not a big carbon fiber fan unless there is some real benefit beyond aesthetics. Not to mention I have wood trim so the wheel will look leather in leather than CF.

With some of the discount codes out there the reasonable cost of the wheel is well worth the improvement in driving experience. Factor in free shipping and no sales tax and the all in cost is pretty fair. I decided to keep my old yoke just in case.

They said it is taking about 20 days to produce them at the moment.

 

[TigerNinety]

IMHO - this was a totally unforced error on Tesla's part. I don't know why there wasn't more involvement or review by the NHTSA. I don't hake yokes in general. I flew with them for 20 years. I don't mind retraining if there is some significant benefit. Or if there is no other way, and this is the best of bad options.

I’m on record not being a yoke fan, but I find this—“a totally unforced error on Tesla’s part”—to be a great synopsis of some of my issues with it. It’s unnecessary and, for a company that touts safety, there’s no demonstrable safety benefit. (Everywhere you can put your hands with a yoke, you can put them with a wheel, and more. There’s no evidence that a wheel top reduces road visibility-related safety or instrument visibility in most cases.) Not having reliably located turn signals or a horn has no arguable safety or performance benefit (make a hard to either side, good luck finding the correct button in a hurry).

Recent software code updates suggest Tesla may offer a wheel on future MS; this would be a good start. At that point, Tesla could let the market decide (which it arguably should have done in the first place).

 

[holmgang]

Believe it is only a matter of time until Tesla will also offer variable ration steering. Probably with just an OTA software update that will give options. Tesla already has electric steering that handles Autopilot.

Yoke steering is something new, and most are afraid of new things. Will take a while for this to become mainstream.

It is not possible to send a software update to magically place a physical variable-gearing-ratio assembly into a car.