left vs right

[nigeldodd]

The symmetry of the Tesla 3 driving controls is beautiful. However I have a kind of left-right blindness. It's a developmental issue that I have learned to cope with over the years in one way or another.

Having had the T3 for just over a week now, I was leaving my drive the other day when I wanted a swipe of the windscreen wipers, this being the UK where it rains all the time, and by mistake I pressed the button at the end of the right hand stalk. The car came shuddering to a halt.

Now I know this is not like a ICE auto box where putting it into park at speed can harm the gear box, but it could be alarming and dangerous in normal driving.

Other, less aesthetic cars, don't cause that confusion because the gear selector is usually on the floor and the stalks do things like lights and wipers. Confusing the two would not be so disastrous and actually has never happened to me anyway because of other tactile cues that distinguish them.

I would hate to suggest Tesla make the car less aesthetic in this respect, and hope that as familiarity increases my danger of getting the stalks confused will lessen, but just thought I'd bring this to the attention of the forum.

 

[TomT]

You must have been going slowly. At least in the U.S., it will not go in to park if you are carrying any kind of speed...

Tby mistake I pressed the button at the end of the right hand stalk. The car came shuddering to a halt.

 

[BioSehnsucht]

Gear selector stalks are actually fairly common with some brands but it may be less common in the vehicles popular in your area, so perhaps you haven't been exposed to it much.

Normally just tapping the Park button I believe won't do anything if you're going more than a couple of MPH/kph. However if you long press the Park button this will apparently engage the parking brake at any speed, though I didn't know this until looking it up in the manual to see if it specified what the speed threshold for normal Park button behavior was.

Caution: In emergency situations, if the brakes are not functioning properly, press and hold the Park button on the gear selector to bring the vehicle to a stop. Do not use this method to stop the vehicle unless absolutely necessary.

 

[qdeathstar]

i’ve made this mistake a few times as well.... just long enough to get the alert on the screen. They should add an audible alert as well,

 

[ewoodrick]

Tesla isn't the only car that does thing like this anymore. And yes, park will only engage at very low speeds.

 

[Mrcarcrazy]

IMO this is a consequence of being new to the car more than any sort of disability. Give yourself time to learn this vehicle a bit. Luckily you didn’t hurt anything as the car is fairly smart and good at keeping simple oopsies from becoming expensive.

 

[nigeldodd]

I think you are probably right. Amazing that I pick up a pen with my right hand without thinking or touch type this message without inverting the mapping between hands and keys. Neural networks.