Well, I got a test drive. I was seriously considering trading in my 2017 but after seeing more details particularly about this steering wheel and related features, among some other items, I think I'm going to wait and see how this shakes out. I have a feeling that some of this new stuff is going to evolve once enough people have one and start complaining. I hate to sound like this as I consider myself fairly comfortable on the edge of technology and willing to participate in paradigm shifts. I'm just having a difficult time with some of these changes from a usability standpoint. Maybe I'm wrong but here are my issues. I'm curious what others think.
1) No more key fob:
So now you use your phone as the primary key and you get a wallet card as backup. I think this is a great feature addition but not to replace the dedicated key fob. In fact I would be happy to pay extra for a key fob as an option but we don't even get that choice. I would see my phone as a good secondary or backup option. I just don't want to have to rely on a non-dedicated device let alone the multitude of reasons why my phone might not work as expected at any given time. Phone battery dead, an app freezing or crashing my phone, the Tesla app crashing (which I've had happen), making sure I did forget to turn the BT back on after I needed to disable it, etc. In fact, in the car, I often give my kid my phone to play a game or stream a show or even do something for school. When I do this I have turn off the BT so the sound comes out form the phone. I'm not even sure if this would prevent the car from driving if it looses the BT connect once you're in the car. This means I would have to use the wallet card.
You also loose the ability to easily do the functions of the fob such as opening the frunk or trunk as you approach the car, automatically closing the trunk without walking around to the rear of the car, activating the summon feature to pull it out of a parking spot when someone parked too close for you to get in easily. You would be required to pull out your phone, unlock it, open the app, let it connect, find the functions and use them. Not practical from any standpoint. Not to mention there are plenty of times I'm somewhere I don't want to pull out my phone or wallet and I need to be vigilant of my surrounds. Loosing the fob does not make things easier.
2) Gear Selection:
Again, I think this automated selection of the likely gear you want based on obstacles and automatically setting park under the conditions it does so is a great new feature. Love it and can't wait for it to evolve. However there are plenty of regular complex scenarios where it doesn't work and moving the gear selection to the screen means one must take their eyes off the road to use it. That seems short sighted. Think of trying to make a quick 3 point turn, parallel parking on a tight roadway or worse, an emergency situation you need to avoid quickly. This feels like a solution looking for a problem.
3) Steering Wheel:
I have no issue with the yoke idea and think I would probably get used to it just fine. But the only thing this improves is arguably the aesthetic of viewing the dash. It certainly dos not make driving any easier. Again, a solution looking for a problem. At highway speed it's not an issue because you do not need to move the wheel very much. At local speeds however, anytime you have to rotate it more than 90 degrees it gets awkward and more difficult. Also, the more sporty you set the car the more difficult it become to use the yoke as it gets pretty firm. I don't know how it would feel on a long drive but I do know I often move my hand positions on the wheel to reduce fatigue. Furthermore, you can no longer let the wheel slide though your hands as it returns to center coming out of a turn controlling its rate easily. Again, a solution looking for a problem and that does not really improve anything worthwhile. I expect to see a robust aftermarket business of swapping the steering wheel.
4) Steering Wheel Controls:
Ok, this stuff bugs me the most. Removing the stalks and putting those functions on the steering wheel is again a solution looking for a problem. It not only improves nothing, it's dangerous. In particular, having the turn signals and horn as buttons on the wheel means that you will never find them when the wheel is turning without taking your eyes off the road and looking. That's the beauty of the stalks and why those functions have traditionally been there. They don't move. They are in the same location all the time and easy to locate no matter what you're doing with the wheel. Try finding the horn in a split second to avoid an accident as your navigating a turn, traffic circle, turning around, doing two turns in succession, etc. The turn signals suffer in the same way in addition to the fact that they are both on the same side which is not intuitive.
5) Rear Screen:
This is an awesome addition even if the location is awkward and not ideal. However it's not fully ready yet. I have to image this will get better with software updates but right now you can't bifurcate the audio. For example you can't pair headphones with the rear and stream something there while those in the front listen to something else. You also can't play something on the rear speaks that's different from the front, though that would probably not work well in practice anyway. I do think this will improve.
6) Electronic Doors: Now all the doors have electronic releases instead of mechanical levers. The rear doors on my 2017 model s are already like that and I hate it. It requires an emergency mechanical mechanism be available in case of failure which would likely happen exactly when you don't want to have any issue getting out. No one would know they were there either. You would have to show everyone getting in your car how to do this. It's not young kid friendly either. While my 8 year old has no problem getting out of the car I have no faith she would remember what I showed her with regard to this and be able to do it in panic or god forbid if I was incapacitated. Now with all of the doors like this your odds seem worse should you be in an accident and there be a fire or you are in water.
