Rumour: Model 3/Y to lose stalks in 2023 model year

[ZenRockGarden]

I was trying to be funny but maybe I think I am funnier than I really am. Actually I know I think I'm funnier than others do, I laugh at my own jokes.

But in all seriousness you still don't have a good argument. Do you never change the radio or climate control on the touchscreen while driving?

Also, you don't change gears while moving in a Tesla.

Changing the radio just so happens to be offered on the steering wheel buttons which are mechanical and do not require taking one's eyes off the road.

Tuning the radio is also a 100% -optional- motoring activity, while moving from reverse to forward and vice versa is NOT optional in many driving situations.

You are totally free to love and buy the new touch-screen-for-driving-controls cars. I will stick with physical control inputs for DRIVING actions thank you.

 

[MountainRatMat]

Changing the radio just so happens to be offered on the steering wheel buttons which are mechanical and do not require taking one's eyes off the road.

Tuning the radio is also a 100% -optional- motoring activity, while moving from reverse to forward and vice versa is NOT optional in many driving situations.

You are totally free to love and buy the new touch-screen-for-driving-controls cars. I will stick with physical control inputs for DRIVING actions thank you.

Well, it's a good thing you didn't have a radio in your car in the 90's then, would be tough to control while driving.

 

[FastLaneJB]

You Americans are missing the point and this is a UK based thread. How many of you reach for a touch screen, take your eyes of the road while making a turn? I suspect you are doing this when you are going straight.

Now imagine a roundabout. It's a circular piece of road that when you are exiting you should indicate so. Your steering wheel will not be straight when you do this but in some various degrees of lock. You might well have had to feed the steering wheel so now you might not know exactly where the indicators are.

Be easier with a stalk that never moved don't you think? You might be fine with it but you cannot honestly tell me that not having stalks makes the car easier to drive than having stalks. Frankly if you did I won't believe you.

Another novel use for stalks in most cars is to control your windscreen wipers. Though to be fair I rarely have to touch that as the wiping works fine on auto.

I work in IT. I get the software side to a car but you don't need to software update indicators to do something else. Cars with temperature knobs won't need updating either. These functions are always needed and physical controls are easier to keep your eyes on the road. Everything else stick in the touchscreen by all means.

 

[Wol747]

This is the difference.

The turn signals and gear selection on essentially ALL cars are done with physical inputs of one kind or another such that you don't have to be looking down at a screen to know what state your car is in.

There are incredibly good reasons for doing it that way. Moving stuff to a touch screen or multi-function button with no tactic feedback is a BAD idea.

You don't need to eat a sh1t sandwich to know it's not a good idea.

And a word to the wise, who is keen to talk about experience of this, that and the other: I don't think you have many roundabouts in North Carolina (last time I visited). If you try correctly indicating while on a roundabout with stalkless indicators, it's going to be messy. Very messy

I had no intention of buying a stalkless yoke car and finding my suspicions were correct, and a quick demo doesn't begin to explore the perceived issues so I drove my S as if it was like that - in roundabouts the wheel was turned 350 degrees so when I wanted to indicate leaving the roundabout the blinker "button" would have been almost a full turn away from normal. Messy doesn't begin to describe it.

 

[Wol747]

I was trying to be funny but maybe I think I am funnier than I really am. Actually I know I think I'm funnier than others do, I laugh at my own jokes.

But in all seriousness you still don't have a good argument. Do you never change the radio or climate control on the touchscreen while driving?

Also, you don't change gears while moving in a Tesla.

I am very right-handed and find using the touchscreen for anything when driving is very challenging in a RHD car so no, I don't

 

[MountainRatMat]

You Americans are missing the point and this is a UK based thread. How many of you reach for a touch screen, take your eyes of the road while making a turn? I suspect you are doing this when you are going straight.

Now imagine a roundabout. It's a circular piece of road that when you are exiting you should indicate so. Your steering wheel will not be straight when you do this but in some various degrees of lock. You might well have had to feed the steering wheel so now you might not know exactly where the indicators are.

Be easier with a stalk that never moved don't you think? You might be fine with it but you cannot honestly tell me that not having stalks makes the car easier to drive than having stalks. Frankly if you did I won't believe you.

Another novel use for stalks in most cars is to control your windscreen wipers. Though to be fair I rarely have to touch that as the wiping works fine on auto.

I work in IT. I get the software side to a car but you don't need to software update indicators to do something else. Cars with temperature knobs won't need updating either. These functions are always needed and physical controls are easier to keep your eyes on the road. Everything else stick in the touchscreen by all means.

I completely understand, I am being a little facetious and silly but it is also not so big of a deal that it would turn me away from buying a Tesla. Maybe for others it is.

I work in manufacturing so understand why they are removing the stalks. There is a delicate balance between cost cutting and reducing quality. Elon likes to go to the extreme.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

If we want numbers, which Tesla models only sold - 55% of those produced in Q1 and which sold 98%?

We can look for lots of reasons why that might be the case, but design could just be one of them.

 

[Mrklaw]

oh thats a point - if they remove the indicator stalk where do the light and wiper controls (albeit limited) go? are the touchscreen or wheel button only too? makes flashing harder

anyone have an insight into how much this is saving? I'd bet its pennies rather than pounds.

 

[Andywil]

oh thats a point - if they remove the indicator stalk where do the light and wiper controls (albeit limited) go? are the touchscreen or wheel button only too? makes flashing harder

anyone have an insight into how much this is saving? I'd bet its pennies rather than pounds.

I'm I missing something, this whole story is so far only a rumour.
Where did the opinion that this would mean the controls would be moved onto the touch screen which seems to have become one of the main objections.
Even if the rumour is true it states that the controls would be by buttons on the steering wheel.
13 pages of increasing hype and apparent anger from a rumour.

 

[init6]

anyone have an insight into how much this is saving? I'd bet its pennies rather than pounds.

Lots of pounds (dollars actually) when you multiply it by the number of cars they make. IIRC removing USS was saving $100 million per year. Show me a capitalist who would knock that back

There's a video, I must look for it again, where Elon was bemoaning the number of parts in a steering wheel, so I suspect the cost of production is quite high and any simplification will get his attention.

 

[randompixel]

oh thats a point - if they remove the indicator stalk where do the light and wiper controls (albeit limited) go? are the touchscreen or wheel button only too? makes flashing harder

anyone have an insight into how much this is saving? I'd bet its pennies rather than pounds.

They're on the wheel. Looking at the latest revision from the semi

Left Side: Indicators, Flash Lights (Hold to enable auto). Wheel for controls/media/calls.
Right Side: Horn, Voice Commands, Wipe Screen (Hold to wash). Wheel for controlling autopilot.

The S+X version is the same except it has an additional icon for autopilot above the scroll wheel that isn't a button, but looks like one. On these you can use your entire palm on the right side to also act like a horn. Pressing the light or wiper button brings up it's associated menu on the screen to be controlled by the left-wheel.

 

[C225]

I've driven the Model S plaid whilst in the US a few months ago and i actually quite like the gear selection being on screen for all the time you use it anyway, also probably helped by the fact i'm right handed so in a LHD car was fine, not sure how i'd fare in a RHD car doing it with my left hand.

Indicators as a button though is a terrible idea, granted you can get use to it but still a stalk you can flick up or down without looking is just better. Me trying to even change lanes on the interstate whilst trying to find the correct button to press wasn't actually that fun.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

I'm I missing something, this whole story is so far only a rumour.
Where did the opinion that this would mean the controls would be moved onto the touch screen which seems to have become one of the main objections.
Even if the rumour is true it states that the controls would be by buttons on the steering wheel.
13 pages of increasing hype and apparent anger from a rumour.

The MS and MX have Drive, Reverse etc on the screen, and the indicators on the steering wheel - I've not noticed anyone suggesting differently for the M3 or MT if they drop the stalks, and pictures do suggest they will be dropping the stalks. Rumour - technically yes, Intelligent guess work based on what we've seen - also true.

 

[randompixel]

I went back and looked at the semi again. The above shot I posted was a press-shot which appears stalkless. In real life however it is a bit different... It has stalks!

The buttons on the wheel seem to have changed function; it looks like fog lights, voice and left-screen operation on the left side. I can't work out the right side buttons.

(from Go Inside the New Tesla Semi: Features, Screens, Seats, and More)

However, as seen on the spy video, they're definitely testing a Highland with swipe on the screen for direction, so who knows.

 

[yessuz]

If the iPhone doesn't have a physical keyboard I'm sticking to my blackberry

as long time BlackBerry fan and user, I can tell you, that the amount of mistypes and wrong letter presses on screen is more or less 10 times higher than on physical keyboard.

I am very sad that there is no more physical keyboard on the phones. genuine.

 

[yessuz]

I had no intention of buying a stalkless yoke car and finding my suspicions were correct, and a quick demo doesn't begin to explore the perceived issues so I drove my S as if it was like that - in roundabouts the wheel was turned 350 degrees so when I wanted to indicate leaving the roundabout the blinker "button" would have been almost a full turn away from normal. Messy doesn't begin to describe it.

you mean 180 degrees? 350 degrees mean that blinker is more or less at the same location/position

 

[Durzel]

I've driven the Model S plaid whilst in the US a few months ago and i actually quite like the gear selection being on screen for all the time you use it anyway, also probably helped by the fact i'm right handed so in a LHD car was fine, not sure how i'd fare in a RHD car doing it with my left hand.

Indicators as a button though is a terrible idea, granted you can get use to it but still a stalk you can flick up or down without looking is just better. Me trying to even change lanes on the interstate whilst trying to find the correct button to press wasn't actually that fun.

I'm with you on the gear selection. Looks pretty intuitive in the videos I've seen, swipe up to go forwards, swipe down to reverse. As you say for the number of times you actually change gear this interface is probably perfectly fine.

Indicators as haptic buttons, and on the steering wheel, is dumb imo. The only way it wouldn't be dumb is if it was a tactile thing, where your left thumb was for left indicator, and right thumb for right indicator, like how Ferrari (and others no doubt) do it.

 

[Zilla91]

The thing is I doubt Ferrari drivers are doing the same kind of drives us plebs in our normal cars do so I doubt they encounter as many roundabouts and if they do, I highly doubt they give a toss to indicate properly

 

[MrBadger]

The thing is I doubt Ferrari drivers are doing the same kind of drives us plebs in our normal cars do so I doubt they encounter as many roundabouts and if they do, I highly doubt they give a toss to indicate properly

Coming through...

 

[redmamoth]

I definitely wouldn't buy any car without an indicator stalk, that's just crazy in the UK. Can you imaging going through the Magic Roundabout in Swindon, it would be like a game of whack-a-mole trying to press that indicator button.

I don't know why we're all getting so worked up about this, it's not like we'll be seeing RHD versions of these cars anytime soon anyway.