I know, it sounds click-baity, but I was honestly surprised how sore I was after driving long distances in my new car. Has anybody else found it uncomfortable to actually drive (i.e., no autopiloting) long distances with the yoke?
I spent my first weekend with a new 2022 Model S putting it through the fire: I drove it back and forth across the state (~250 miles each way). I didn't use autopilot on the way down, and I used it just a little on the way back (I was excited to enjoy actually driving the car!). Both times, I arrived with very sore shoulders, tingly hands, and bad headaches. I've never been so fatigued and in pain after driving that route (and to be clear, it's not like I'm normally driving a Lexus--usually the car I drive is very light, has a stiff suspension, has barely any climate control, and has very short gears with an audible engine. While I arrive tired, I'm usually feeling so good and having so much fun that I want to turn around drive another several hours in it).
While I'm getting used to the half-wheel shape of the yoke, I realized that it was the yoke's vertical handles that were literally being a pain:
- The yoke's handles' cross sections are deep and thin, not round like the rim of a wheel. Holding them reminds me of holding a vertical bar of soap (in terms of shape, not because they're actually slippery)
- The yoke's handles are perfectly vertical and don't have any ergonomic bulges or finger indents to help naturally keep your hands in place
I realized that I was keeping a tight grip around the handles so as to prevent gravity from pulling my hands down (even when I tried keeping my thumbs on top to try and anchor them down). Additionally, because of the deep yet thin nature of the grip, there's an uneven pressure put on your hands into your palm and mid-fingers (as opposed to if it was a round cross section, where pressure would be distributed evenly around your hands, palms, and fingers). This was cutting bloodflow to parts of my hands, and after a few hours of tightly gripping, my shoulders and neck muscles got sore, which in turn gave me the bad headache....
I'm aware of the following solutions, but I'm not crazy about them:
- Use autopilot (but I'd like to hope we can drive the car long distances without autopilot and not get punished for it)
- Rest your hands on the top of the bottom bars (while this is a bit more relaxing, I don't really like the control you get and I'm not convinced this isn't dangerous should the airbag go off)
- Keep Advil in the center console
Has anybody else experienced fatigue after long trips without autopilot? If so, did it get better over time? Are my hands just designed wrong? Or am I just holding the yoke wrong (just like my iPhone)?? Or does everybody just use autopilot on long trips?
I spent my first weekend with a new 2022 Model S putting it through the fire: I drove it back and forth across the state (~250 miles each way). I didn't use autopilot on the way down, and I used it just a little on the way back (I was excited to enjoy actually driving the car!). Both times, I arrived with very sore shoulders, tingly hands, and bad headaches. I've never been so fatigued and in pain after driving that route (and to be clear, it's not like I'm normally driving a Lexus--usually the car I drive is very light, has a stiff suspension, has barely any climate control, and has very short gears with an audible engine. While I arrive tired, I'm usually feeling so good and having so much fun that I want to turn around drive another several hours in it).
While I'm getting used to the half-wheel shape of the yoke, I realized that it was the yoke's vertical handles that were literally being a pain:
- The yoke's handles' cross sections are deep and thin, not round like the rim of a wheel. Holding them reminds me of holding a vertical bar of soap (in terms of shape, not because they're actually slippery)
- The yoke's handles are perfectly vertical and don't have any ergonomic bulges or finger indents to help naturally keep your hands in place
I realized that I was keeping a tight grip around the handles so as to prevent gravity from pulling my hands down (even when I tried keeping my thumbs on top to try and anchor them down). Additionally, because of the deep yet thin nature of the grip, there's an uneven pressure put on your hands into your palm and mid-fingers (as opposed to if it was a round cross section, where pressure would be distributed evenly around your hands, palms, and fingers). This was cutting bloodflow to parts of my hands, and after a few hours of tightly gripping, my shoulders and neck muscles got sore, which in turn gave me the bad headache....
I'm aware of the following solutions, but I'm not crazy about them:
- Use autopilot (but I'd like to hope we can drive the car long distances without autopilot and not get punished for it)
- Rest your hands on the top of the bottom bars (while this is a bit more relaxing, I don't really like the control you get and I'm not convinced this isn't dangerous should the airbag go off)
- Keep Advil in the center console
Has anybody else experienced fatigue after long trips without autopilot? If so, did it get better over time? Are my hands just designed wrong? Or am I just holding the yoke wrong (just like my iPhone)?? Or does everybody just use autopilot on long trips?