Put it this way. FSD is a party trick right now, and will be for the foreseeable future at the rate things are improving. If I have to keep my hands on the wheel and watch the road all the time, I may as well be driving. Until FSD is able to drive me from point A to point B while I do something else it is not that useful for most people. If FSD actually did that I would not have any issues with the yoke either. The reality is yoke + current FSD is a fail. When I use FSD I am far less relaxed than when I drive myself. Until that switches it is not really a feature.
Other manufacturers are adding autonomous features that are actually useful for most daily driving, and work. For example:
Self parking competition: Audi Vs Tesla
The reality for me is that I already have a 2018 with FSD and unlimited charging that I prefer to drive versus the MSLR most due to the stupid yoke. So when the MSLR lease expires I will be looking at other options. Yes, I may end up getting another MS, although I think that is far less likely than when I made that decision ~2 years ago to order the MSLR.
FSD is very ambiguous; that is part of the reason people have conflicting opinions (and Tesla contributes to the confusion).
There are two main parameters: the level of autonomy (MB is better with its L3, while Tesla and pretty much everyone else has L2) and coverage of use cases (Tesla has a slight lead on this one and I am ignoring beta becauseā¦ well, it it beta).
As a driver assistant feature FSD is pretty good. I regularly drive 200+mi on a highway and use it extensively. Definitely less tired at the end of the trip. Would I let it drive in inclement weather, in more complex situations (e.g. road construction, city, secondary roads) - absolutely not! It will take years, may be decades, until FSD reaches parity with a human driver in terms of scope and complexity of the tasks. Currently, it is like 12yr old that is starting to take driving lessons and needs supervision. When FSD goes toe to toe with a Finnish rally driver then we can talk about parity. For now, it is awesome driver assistance feature and all the talk about robotaxis is a dream that may or may not come true. All the power (and luck) to them for trying but that is still beta (with the appropriate consumer base).
The yoke was the only thing that stopped me from upgrading my 2020 MSLR. I can see it on the track (along with progressive steering - something that is sorely missing) along with proper UI. The way it is implemented now, it is an abomination. Yes, it is a novelty and one can get used to it, but it is largely inferior to the traditional wheel and stalks in a normal, everyday city driving.
- Better visibility. The original Tesla claim that is very, very questionable. I have not seen anyone here mentioning that they have it. Most of the positive posts are āI got used to itā - hardly a strong endorsement.
- Worse control. In the city people have to take many, different turns. That means that controls on the wheel are always at a different spot in relation to the driverās body. Human brain is very advanced and can track that (or update through a glance) but it is harder than having an object that is stationary in relation to your body coordinate system, i.e. a stalk on the console or center horn button. I have not seen studies but will not be surprised if so-called yoke drivers are less attentive and make more mistakes.
- Worse interaction. Haptic buttons do not have the necessary strong feedback/sensitivity. While that is ok for secondary functions, it is a problem for critical functions like signals, horn, etc. You have to be intentional when you do that and have a strong feedback so that you do not spend mental energy thinking about it.
- Worse control. Yokes, coupled with progressive steering (turning only 90ā each way) are very effective on the race track. Initially, the wheels had 2.5 turns each way to compensate for the lack of power steering (have you seen the gigantic truck wheels from the WWII era?). We got power steering but the 2.5 turns remained because they give us fine adjustment in city driving. Chopping part of the wheel forces the driver to have their hand in very limited spots, even crossing them - which would fail any driving test. That would not have been such a problem if the āyokeā was coupled with progressive steering - which Tesla did not do.
- Button positioning. On top of the fact that they are buttons, both signals are on the same side of the āyokeā! That requires much more mental power compared to left side for left turn and right side for the right turn. But they could not do that because left and right are very relative terms with the āyokeā.
Bottom line, the āyokeā is harder on the driver, even if it is a novelty and we can get used to it. Change != progress. However, more difficult control would not matter if the car is autonomous. And that is the crux of the problem. Tesla is religiously following the FSD path and because that technology is still immature they are breaking the more mature product - the awesome EV.