My second car was the BX, early ones had the binacle indicator and no power steering in a 1.9D, heavy is an understatement
Just cos Elon/Tesla does it does not automatically make it visionary and innovation. I don't recall Elon coming to the end of a presentation and using this as his "and one more thing moment". As far as I know neither Elon or Tesla have come forward to explain why this is even a good thing. The fact that they are staying completely silent on the matter tells you what you need to know. This is just cost cutting pure and simple. When the best anyone can think to say about the change is "it might not be as bad as you think" its hardly a good start.
Yeah, agreed. Removing stalks ain’t visionary when it’s been done before - and failed. Good ideas stick around. Bad ideas fade away.
Exactly. Tesla will pivot if sales are affected. They’ve done it before.
Steve and Elon was/is very different leaders when it comes to tech space and how they wanted/want to project themselves as leaders. The hype in Steve’s presentation was always understated but Elon’s presentation is very scripted with lots of writers involved in creating series of high moments like a Topgun Maverick movie. I don’t think he will ever publicise something that will create a lot of criticisms - losing stalk is one of those moments. So he won’t say anything - it is just forgotten and if and when it comes back there won’t be any publicity. It creates its own publicity both negative and positive - that’s Tesla’s marketing script. I am not saying Elon is involved in this. But that is how Tesla deal with negative publicity.
A little bit but not all of it. I am not saying this is all a visionary thing. There may be elements of it - I am not that aware of what is the next thing in Tesla line up. I have clearly said Steve Jobs iphone comparison was a flawed analogy that is just to give some idea about how modern IT trillion dollar companies works. They are not legacy car makers and don’t worry too much about losing something to gain something. It is just high risk game for them. BMW will not make any radical alterations to its bread and butter 3 series and that is how they function.
There is a Youtube review of the highland done by "Motortrend" which is such a puff piece its embarrassing. I know its in the US so they are allowed not to care too much about the indicator stalk but their only comment on it was "They are on the steering wheel just like a Lambo or a Ferrari so that is not too radical"
You and I know indicator stalks aren’t that important @Jason71 - there are so many beemers/bimmers going around with no one bothered to indicate! Apologies @Zilla91, I know you don’t like BMW bad jokes.There is a Youtube review of the highland done by "Motortrend" which is such a puff piece its embarrassing. I know its in the US so they are allowed not to care too much about the indicator stalk but their only comment on it was "They are on the steering wheel just like a Lambo or a Ferrari so that is not too radical"
So now apparently the measure of what is good design in a daily driver is how Ferrari do it.
If it had no back seats no headroom and Tesla got rid of the infotainment system and the cruise control I cannot imagine them shrugging and saying well that's how Ferrari do it so its fine.
I'd argue it's a different kettle of fish to a mainstream car doing this, for a variety of reasons:
jokes aside. After 4 years of Tesla ownership I still fail to indicate leaving a roundabout when turning right about a third of the time simply because doing so requires me to pull the stalk twice to go from right indication to left indication. Unlike every other car I have owned where it only requires once. I still drive other cars so my brain has not adapted to the difference enough for it to be automatic. and I feel bad for other road users every time it happens because it does matter. And I live somewhere with a LOT of roundabouts.
This is a good point, the indicators on a Tesla are rubbish in how they operate compared to other cars. Maybe they’ve accepted that and kind of given up but only have to do it this way because it’s not legal to ship a car without indicators.
I’ve been between, Blue, White and Red but think Ultra Red is my favourite when I saw this picture, hopefully will look this good in UK winter
Elon, all too often, talks a load of unmitigated crap.
It's even worse than you describe, because the autocancel feature tends not to cancel shallow first exits, so often you have to cancel the indicators yourself. And because this is all the same half-baked nonsense as the wipers and headlights and so on, some of the time it does cancel itself, meaning you inadvertently find yourself indicating again because of course the way to cancel indicating is to indicate, which you just did. Note that the buttons are the same, in that you have to mash them twice to cancel. Aaaargh.
I understand your frustration! Believe me this particular issue isn't just Tesla ... I followed a new Mini off a roundabout today and I could see he was doing exactly as you describe ... indicators cancelling then indicating the wrong way then back again then finally cancelled ... it's nuts. Give me a good old "clunk clunk" action indicator stalk any day!
