How many years before Teslas have "fold away" steering controls?

[calisnow]

This must be on the drawing board inside HQ - a steering wheel/yolk which folds up and out of the way so you can read a book, paper, use your laptop, etc. without the device being jammed up against the wheel.

But how soon? I'm going to go optimistic and say the first Teslas with a fold-away steering wheel are 36 months away. This might be a feature which is delivered and later unlocked.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Never.
Never ever.
Either the car can drive itself with a very high rate of reliability or it can't and a person needs to be paying attention and ready to take over at any moment. There is no in-between.

 

[calisnow]

Never.
Never ever.
Either the car can drive itself with a very high rate of reliability or it can't and a person needs to be paying attention and ready to take over at any moment. There is no in-between.

Well sir - there's what you think should be the case and then there's what manufacturers will actually produce - and they are not necessarily the same. While I may agree with your principles I'm not sure that is what will be built.

Also a car could drive itself with a high degree of reliability and also be equipped with manual controls for when a human wants to drive. You might not like that idea but I think it might end up being produced anyway.

 

[CHG-ON]

I think I want the option. It will be a very long time before I fully and completely trust a computer with my life. If I did that today with my Mac (in the shop) or my iPhone, I'd be a goner for sure! I know that we are all racing toward the future as fast as we possibly can and I love it. But I honestly think fully autonomous driving is much farther off than many of us think. Aside from the technical challenges, there are very significant societal and governmental hurdles to overcome. I think that those two issues will slow this down considerably. While not a total fan of over regulation, this might be one area where moving slowly and mindfully will really pay off.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Well sir - there's what you think should be the case and then there's what manufacturers will actually produce - and they are not necessarily the same. While I may agree with your principles I'm not sure that is what will be built.

Also a car could drive itself with a high degree of reliability and also be equipped with manual controls for when a human wants to drive. You might not like that idea but I think it might end up being produced anyway.

It's not like steering wheels really get in the way. If people really want to be able to drive, they can buy one with a regular steering wheel and move it forwards when not in use. Telescoping is fine.

 

[Dstrohl]

My guesses:

• Stage 1: automatically using the existing steering wheel movement to pull it back a bit when in full self driving mode... HW exists today, sw around when the FSDC is enabled and hands off driving is legal. (probably also moving the drivers seat back as well)
• Stage 2: somehow enhancing the telescoping action to pull the wheel further back somehow, but still reachable in an emergency... 3-5 years, depending on the legal environment and how well FSDC roll-out goes. (at a guess, this would happen at around the same time as stage 1, but for new cars)
• Stage 3: something that can actually "hide" the steering wheel or pull it back to the point where it is not immediately accessible. useful for Tesla Network and no legal driver scenarios (throwing the kids in the car and telling it to take them to school). 10+ years, though if FSDC is approved faster than I expect, it could be faster.

 

[number12]

Never.
Never ever.
Either the car can drive itself with a very high rate of reliability or it can't and a person needs to be paying attention and ready to take over at any moment. There is no in-between.

I guess someone has not seen iRobot

 

[Dstrohl]

Never.
Never ever.
Either the car can drive itself with a very high rate of reliability or it can't and a person needs to be paying attention and ready to take over at any moment. There is no in-between.

While I am not sure I totally agree... what I do see as being realistic is a case where it can very reliably handle urban and highway traffic, but in rural areas it might pull over and pop out the wheel and say "sorry sir, autonomous reliability is too low for accurate driving, please take over control."

 

[BluestarE3]

I guess someone has not seen iRobot

Are you referring to the makers of the Roomba vacuum cleaner or the movie, "I, Robot"?

 

[number12]

Are you referring to the makers of the Roomba vacuum cleaner or the movie, "I, Robot"?

Will smith movie driving autonomous Audi with foldaway steering wheel.

 

[calisnow]

Are you referring to the makers of the Roomba vacuum cleaner or the movie, "I, Robot"?

No steering wheel.