Mercedes swapped the cruise and directional stalks. Hope Tesla does that with the X.

[green1]

What is "natural"? To speed up, one "naturally" thinks of moving forward, so pushing the stalk away from the driver should mean speed up. It's the exact same movement one does with the accelerator pedal, pushes it away from the driver towards the front of the car.

Slowing down is "naturally" pulling back on the stalk, just like moving the accelerator pedal back induces regen braking That is why using regen is so "intuitive", because there is a mental model that pushing forward speeds up and pulling backwards slows down. Horses have worked that way for quite some time. One "naturally" pulls back on something to slow it down.

If there is one thing on the Model S I curse every time I use it, it's this stalk arrangement.

I actually have to strongly disagree with you here. I had a mercedes cruise control, and I found it the most intuitive possible. Increase is up, decrease is down, go away and don't bother me is pushing it away, and come here and do your job is pulling it towards you.
It was quite intuitive and I loved it. I never had to think about, or even look at it, it just worked.
The only other vehicles I've had with cruise have been on the steering wheel, and I find I always have to look at it and think about which button does what, because they are simply buttons, you need to remember the layout, as opposed to the stalk which simply behaves the way you'd expect.

 

[NigelM]

Increase is up, decrease is down, go away and don't bother me is pushing it away, and come here and do your job is pulling it towards you.

In general I agree with you; I look at it slightly differently in that I see pushing on the stalk as equivalent to braking....everyone pushes the brake to slow down or stop, which is invariably what I want to do if I'm disengaging the cruise control.

I think we can all get used to different layouts quite quickly - Any other Model S owners here who have forgotten to pull the key when they're getting out of another car, or ever gotten into a rental car and wondered why it didn't start up when they put their foot on the brake?

 

[chickensevil]

I don't drive with my hands at 5 and 7. I accept the risk of injury from airbags in exchange for greater control over the car. There's no way that 5 and 7 provides the same leverage over the wheel in an emergency as 3 and 9.

I can still reach the stalk without moving my hand from 9 o'clock, but it's a bit more difficult.

Myth busters pretty much tested all the hand layouts in the event of airbag deployment and none of them caused any harm to the person or their hands/arms... With exception of the setup where you have your fingers with two on the outside and two on the inside like a "Spock" greeting... If that makes any sense... If not feel free to go look up the episode. But in any case 3-9 is no better or worse than 5-7 and the reason is because in both instances the airbag will push your hands away from the wheel regardless. I think they even tested the one handed relaxed style and there was no injury...

So I say go with whichever feels comfortable and gives you the most control. I drive way more at 3-9 than I used to in this car. I think part of that is I came off of a manual so was always driving one handed... Because of the power and sport steering and ability to take sharper turns I have really tightened up my driving and do it that way. This gives me no issue in using either stalk from 3-9... But I have pretty big hands...

 

[woof]

I actually have to strongly disagree with you here. I had a mercedes cruise control, and I found it the most intuitive possible. Increase is up, decrease is down, go away and don't bother me is pushing it away, and come here and do your job is pulling it towards you.
It was quite intuitive and I loved it. I never had to think about, or even look at it, it just worked.

That's interesting! You built a mental model that works for you, and that's what makes man/machine interfaces work. When the model doesn't fit it doesn't work. I never built the correct model to match what they gave us.

I'd like to see Tesla address this in software, with full programability of the stalks and functions assigned to them. This should include the wheel buttons and thumb wheels as personally I'd put cruise on the right thumb wheel (scroll "up" for faster, "down" for slower, "press" for cancel/resume) and make both left hand stalks be turn signals.

 

[Canuck]

What bothers me is that sometimes when I hit the signal to change lanes to the right, the wiper also does one wipe. I know that's my fault, and I should be more careful not to press the end when I am taping it to move up slightly but it never happens when I go left and it seems poor placement to me.

 

[Jason S]

Cruise is now below and smaller. After driving with it a bit I think it's a major improvement.

Ah. That seems a bit better to me too, since the other car I regularly drive uses the higher left side placement for turn signals. I think having hands at 5/7 or 4/8 is pretty natural when cruising, therefore having cruise down there can work.

 

[Blastphemy]

What bothers me is that sometimes when I hit the signal to change lanes to the right, the wiper also does one wipe. I know that's my fault, and I should be more careful not to press the end when I am taping it to move up slightly but it never happens when I go left and it seems poor placement to me.

In the Model S, the turn signal, wiper controls, and cruise control are all on the left?? So what's on the right? Bizarre...

 

[chickensevil]

The shifter. Park, Drive, Reverse, Neutral...

It has been pretty common practice ever since they put the gear selector on the wheel to keep it isolated so you don't accidentally hit the wrong stick and throw your car in reverse or something. (although the Tesla is electronically controlled and won't allow you to do that over 5MPH... but still.

 

[Karl-Heinz]

...taken the experience of the Audi (comparable to BMW and probably new Daimler B-Class) vs the original Daimler setup, for me personally the Audi (/BMW/new Daimler B-class) setup with turn indicators in the higher and speed control in the lower position is much more intuitive. I would very much appreciate to see this modification vs. MS in the MX.

Model-X EU Reservation #2025

 

[pete8314]

In the Model S, the turn signal, wiper controls, and cruise control are all on the left?? So what's on the right? Bizarre...

It depends what brand of car you're used too. Since my first Merc in 95(ish), they've always had a single stalk for all the functions, aside from cruise. Works well. I've given a lot of test drives in my car, it's funny to watch the Merc drivers not think twice about it, and everyone else, without fail, tried to use the cruise stalk to signal. Not a big deal though, it doesn't take long to get used to it. My biggest problem is now expecting every other car I drive to turn off when I get out the seat, and to lock when I'm a few feet away! More often than not I leave my wife Q5 unlocked by accident.

 

[cntchds]

I saw a brand new Model S yesterday, and it had the same stalks as the Mercedes B-Class in the OP. No longer has the big chrome button for park, and definitely a more "standard" location for the stalks.

 

[chickensevil]

Would love a picture if you can find one

 

[cntchds]

No pictures, but I might be able to go in tomorrow and see if the car is still there.

 

[Tedkidd]

I saw a brand new Model S yesterday, and it had the same stalks as the Mercedes B-Class in the OP. No longer has the big chrome button for park, and definitely a more "standard" location for the stalks.

Sweet. Love how quickly Tesla moves.

 

[woof]

Now that is an upgrade I would pay for.

 

[Matthew049]

You're great at manipulating words, but perhaps not as subtle as you believe. You know exactly what you're doing when you say things like 'as Nigel's post proves' or 'Wow, sounds more like the thinking of a laggard than an early adopter. You really have a Tesla and solar? Don't you think you might want to be open rather than closed? Try it before expressing opinion?'. Those things just serve to inflame a conversation and less mature people than the posters here might respond immaturely. (And thank you bollar for the great way you handled it.)

If you want to call it judgmental because you were called out on it, that's fine. I call it something else. Let's just have an honest discussion without trying to twist what other people are saying. Like, say, trying to get an emotional response out of me by using the word 'judgmental'.

I have no idea why you're taking this stalk position thing so personally. Disagreeing with you is not a personal attack. To me it's one of those things where it's great to have the discussion, everyone gets the opinion out there, and we hope Tesla reads it and considers it - though of course it would be far too late to influence Model X. We're talking Model 3 at this point.

well said

 

[JST]

I saw a brand new Model S yesterday, and it had the same stalks as the Mercedes B-Class in the OP. No longer has the big chrome button for park, and definitely a more "standard" location for the stalks.

Interesting. Wonder if a retrofit would be straightforward--or even possible.

 

[MjjVonk]

That would be great, i have several cars and this is really ****.

 

[bollar]

Interesting. Wonder if a retrofit would be straightforward--or even possible.

If Tesla is willing to do it, I would think is would be straightforward. It looks like they have run out of the old Daimler part and had to move to the current one.