Model 3: steering by wire?

[igotzzoom]

I definitely do not want a generic "Google Car." My reasons for wanting a Model 3 are the following

1) Advancing the advent of sustainable, desirable transportation
2) Owning a Tesla (Yes, there is a bit of status snobbery at play here).
3) Owning a fun-to-drive EV

At a certain level, I accept the ultimate inevitability of autonomous cars. But in the meantime, I want to enjoy the driving experience as much as I can. For me, EVs have some inherently attractive characteristics to a certain sub-set of enthusiasts -- Instantaneous, plentiful torque (that "jet-like" rush of uninterrupted acceleration), near-silent operation, and relatively 'guilt-free" hoonery (especially if you have a solar system and/or PowerWall/home battery system). There may be some that are content to push a button and have an "Autobot" (pun partially intended) shuttle them off to their destination all the time. But a lot of us still want to have our hands on the wheel, and our foot on the throttle. I like having the option of autonomous driving, but also like having the "hands-on" experience, too.

 

[jbcarioca]

I definitely do not want a generic "Google Car." My reasons for wanting a Model 3 are the following

1) Advancing the advent of sustainable, desirable transportation
2) Owning a Tesla (Yes, there is a bit of status snobbery at play here).
3) Owning a fun-to-drive EV

At a certain level, I accept the ultimate inevitability of autonomous cars. But in the meantime, I want to enjoy the driving experience as much as I can. For me, EVs have some inherently attractive characteristics to a certain sub-set of enthusiasts -- Instantaneous, plentiful torque (that "jet-like" rush of uninterrupted acceleration), near-silent operation, and relatively 'guilt-free" hoonery (especially if you have a solar system and/or PowerWall/home battery system). There may be some that are content to push a button and have an "Autobot" (pun partially intended) shuttle them off to their destination all the time. But a lot of us still want to have our hands on the wheel, and our foot on the throttle. I like having the option of autonomous driving, but also like having the "hands-on" experience, too.

I'm with you. I can attest that FBW airplanes can be just as exciting as the old kind. There is one thing about which I am postive: Elon Musk could not even imagine and unresponsive, unfeeling car. Thus, don't worry about it!

 

[Jersey Shore Tom]

The cause for things like autopilot, this idea of no mechanical steering link, and the whole NVH crusade of the last 20 years is sheer, all-out LAZINESS on the part of the consumer, who has become a wussified crybaby, driven by automotive advertising. God forbid we hear any engine noise, or feel a bump in the road, and now even steering the car is getting to be too much trouble to bother with!

Newer technology is not always better technology. Some things, the 1970s cars got right.

Some things they got wrong, like keeping people alive.

Year US auto deaths US population

1972 54,589 209,896,021

2015 35,092 321,370,000

And 2015 was a very bad year for auto deaths in the US.

List of motor vehicle deaths in U.S. by year - Wikipedia

 

[timk225]

Old cars are better in the sense that they didn't do anything for you. You had to know how much to pump the gas to start it. You had to steer it, you had to OPERATE it. I didn't like it when they took out the throttle cable, now people want to take out the steering column. What's next, no mechanical link to the brake pedal? Is opening the door and putting on the seat belt going to be too much trouble for some people?

Don't compare cars to airplanes, as some have done, that's too different a comparison.

 

[ccutrer]

Is opening the door and putting on the seat belt going to be too much trouble for some people?

Yes, yes it is . The Model X spoils me. When showing it to people that haven't seen it before, we often joke about what an "inconvenience" it is to have to buckle ourselves. And for door closing... yes, I've been chastised for just walking away from another car without closing the door. Whoops.

But seriously, several of your items are reasonable, and several are ridiculous. For example, steering feel can contribute greatly to the experience of driving a car. On the other side, are people really missing anything by not knowing how much to pump the gas to start the car? For 99.99% of people, no. For you, apparently yes. Good for you. Enjoy having a classic car as a hobby. Just realize that the vast majority of people don't care about the minutia of how transportation works. Most just want to get there. And a lot don't even care about much of that experience (acceleration, handling, etc.). We should feel lucky that Elon and Co. are passionate about some of those aspects, and offer us something more interesting than an electric econobox. "My" car is a Leaf (Model X is technically the wife's), and I can tell you, it is a far more bland driving experience, even with modern bells and whistles like an electric drivetrain, Bluetooth, heated seats and steering wheel, even remote access.

 

[jbcarioca]

...
Don't compare cars to airplanes, as some have done, that's too different a comparison.

No it is not too different. Both air and water vehicles have very useful technological analogues. A good many innovations have passed from one to the other. Would you like to go back to bias-ply tires? Would you give up GPS? How about ABS or seat belts?
Certainly no analogue is perfect but much creativity comes from finding analogous situations that other people do not see. Just as aviation has useful analogues, how about the microcomputer industry. Do you want to give up OTA updates and new features from software improvement?

Please do not think another field does not have useful analogues for any given field. Consider mathematical biophysics contributions to auto safety, driven in part by experiements with tiny single cell animals. How could that work?

Advances come strange and improbable places. Aviation and land transport have much in common, idea transfer is not even a stretch.

 

[Jersey Shore Tom]

Old cars are better in the sense that they didn't do anything for you. You had to know how much to pump the gas to start it. You had to steer it, you had to OPERATE it. I didn't like it when they took out the throttle cable, now people want to take out the steering column. What's next, no mechanical link to the brake pedal? Is opening the door and putting on the seat belt going to be too much trouble for some people?

Don't compare cars to airplanes, as some have done, that's too different a comparison.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but you are clearly interested in having a car that operates like they did 50 years or more ago, why are you reading and posting on TMC. Tesla is never going to build that car and I doubt anyone else is going to build an electric car that meets your desires either.

 

[jbcarioca]

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but you are clearly interested in having a car that operates like they did 50 years or more ago, why are you reading and posting on TMC. Tesla is never going to build that car and I doubt anyone else is going to build an electric car that meets your desires either.

timk225, in his defense, is consistent. Most of his recent posts lament the technological advances that have isolated man from machine. As I mentioned not long ago I still remember the sheer bliss and excitement from driving a Shelby 427SC (I also recall my most exciting traffic ticket, for "parts of body protruding". details are OT and almost adult-rated. The NYC JP threw the ticket out and laughed when he saw the photo.). That sort of excitement is gone. timk225 does not care for aviation analogies, but my memories of a Lear 25 I once owned are similar. (0-41,000 feet in 6:43 minutes, another story). Vehicles such as these were exciting, killed people often, lacked modern safety, were vary noisy and were devilishly difficult to drive well or even at all.

Those could happen in the 1960's and early 1970's. The world has moved on. I understand the nostalgia of timk225 but I personally want to preserve the memories but NOT repeat them. NOT repeat them because I absolutely hated a Shelby 427SC replica I drove last year. It was better than the original but I could not wait to get away from it.

I do not understand, as you say, why timk225 has any interest in Tesla. The closest thing he can find in production today is probably a JAC.

 

[dew00druff]

So, now that the Model 3 is out, what is the verdict? Does it have steer by wire, or still have a mechanical linkage to the steering wheel? I'm not a current owner otherwise I'd look at it myself. But I'm considering buying one. Thanks!

 

[Knightshade]

Far as I know nobody used steer by wire in a production consumer car except the Q50 which nobody liked and they had to switch back-

Infiniti Q50S to Get G37-Derived Steering System for 2016 – News – Car and Driver