So… Highland is out…

[Mark89052]

Indicator buttons on the steering wheel is a minor issue and no worse IMHO than an indicator lever on the "wrong" side as many Japanese cars used to have.

It wasn’t just Japaneses cars it was a lot of British cars that had them on right side as well, I had many a 70s/80s cars like that, no idea when the swap over happened, I suppose it made more sense that stalk was put on drivers door side so you could operate with one finger at same time as changing gear

I’m with you it will be something we can overcome and get used to if not ideal but it is what it is, buttons seems to fall easy to the thumb from pictures I’ve seen and muscle memory will kick in after a while, like it did after after I got first car with stalks on LHD side (You can imagine the comments if forums existed back then…..)

Unfortunately we are not in some utopia where everyone indicates properly, hardly anyone does, but I will try my best to master, there are far more dangerous drivers on the road than the ones that don’t indicate to leave a roundabout

 

[Vitoman]

I have seen

I have just ordered the new Model 3 to replace my 3 1/2 year old SR+ which has proved to be and is the best car I have ever owned by a long chalk.
That includes a few BMW's and other "quality" motors.
My only issue is with the RWD's sound system as I upgraded the SR+ with the premium Hanssshow that had a sub woofer along with its amp, a digital signal processor and two upgraded rear parcel shelf speakers that improved listening experience massively.

No Highland tests seem to mention this area of the car and £10,000 is a big jump for better sound, especially as I have added paint, tow bar, white seats and 19" wheels. The extra power is not required as the RWD has more than enough to get in to trouble.

Indicator buttons on the steering wheel is a minor issue and no worse IMHO than an indicator lever on the "wrong" side as many Japanese cars used to have.

For those that will need stalks, I bet one of the grey suppliers will soon have a can bus option for them.

Re audio, I have seen a few videos highlighting differences on old version of M3 and suspect the facelift model will be similar in comparisons otherthan the LR has one additonal speaker. I've come to the conclusion that £10k is far too much to pay just for the better audio, when the real range differential and better performance are not really a concern for me. If I was doing high mileage journeys it might be different. So will stick with SR and spend a bit on the colour etc.

 

[MrT3]

It wasn’t just Japaneses cars it was a lot of British cars that had them on right side as well, I had many a 70s/80s cars like that, no idea when the swap over happened, I suppose it made more sense that stalk was put on drivers door side so you could operate with one finger at same time as changing gear

Yep. Properly designed RHD vehicles will have the indicator control on the right for, as you say, the ability to flick the indicators whilst changing gear, so all old British and Japanese car were like this. A Japanese car sold in a LHD country will flip all the controls, including the indicators, but because the lazy/cheap European manufacturers couldn't be bothered to do that (I've drive Mercs where they couldn't even be bothered to change the wipers over), there was some sort of harmonisation agreement in the late 80s/90s so we have consistent (but ergonomically inferior) controls.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

The more interesting news (if true and some will know my views on the sites that leak these stories including those who still think there is a front bumper camera), the M3 Performance when it gets released… drum roll.. will actually have sportier seats.

It would be a welcome update if true as they’re not really great in a sporting sense.

 

[Roger20]

The more interesting news (if true and some will know my views on the sites that leak these stories including those who still think there is a front bumper camera), the M3 Performance when it gets released… drum roll.. will actually have sportier seats.

It would be a welcome update if true as they’re not really great in a sporting sense.

From what I've seen on YT the Highland SR and LR seats have improved side bolsters but may sit a bit higher, possibly because they are now ventilated. Eventually we'll get to see what the actual differences are and whether the Performance has different seats.

 

[randompixel]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1717392323921797559

https://twitter.com/x/status/1717392327285629265

https://twitter.com/x/status/1717587080656650746

Being the original referenced post with educated guesses made from hidden software assets.

 

[HaggisMan]

Interesting stuff. Doesn’t quite line up with what is coming out of the factory in China at the moment but who knows. Maybe the M3P will have a few more bells and whistles.

 

[Doudeau]

I imagine this journalist isn’t going to be impressed with the direction of travel by Tesla with their indicators .

What's the solution to poor roundabout etiquette?​

 

[phil4]

Interesting stuff. Doesn’t quite line up with what is coming out of the factory in China at the moment but who knows. Maybe the M3P will have a few more bells and whistles.

Yep, this is what puzzles me... they M3 is already out around a lot of the world, so surely we'd already have seen the difference for example with the rear bench seat. And the manual door release. I mean sure, the sport seats might be P territory, but the other end... would have thought would already be evident. Unless of course this is all for a "tweak" due in another year or two. Odd.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

I think the issue is Tesla reuse so much across models, couple that with decoding development code which may not make production and you end up with an “educated guess” thats nothing like the truth. I suspect the front bumper camera falls into this camp, probably common hardware across models but active only used on something like the cybertruk. seen in the M3 code and added to an early pre production render etc. but didn't make the final cut, at least not yet

When Musk can't get the timing right on when things will appear, I'm not sure 3rd partys can either, and I adopt the "believe it when I see it" mentality.

That said.. sportier seats in the P and better suspension would be a very welcome.

 

[Kansalis]

I imagine this journalist isn’t going to be impressed with the direction of travel by Tesla with their indicators .

What's the solution to poor roundabout etiquette?​

I wouldn't be at all surprised if we get some kind of indicator autonomy driven by the navigation. It would be a relatively simple tweak to have the navigation system indicate for you on approach to a junction or turn. There are pitfalls with that of course; our mini roundabouts are difficult enough to indicate around manually, then once you add in things like magic roundabouts it all goes out the window completely...

 

[ACarneiro]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if we get some kind of indicator autonomy driven by the navigation. It would be a relatively simple tweak to have the navigation system indicate for you on approach to a junction or turn. There are pitfalls with that of course; our mini roundabouts are difficult enough to indicate around manually, then once you add in things like magic roundabouts it all goes out the window completely...

I don’t drive with a destination set all the time.
In fact I rarely do on my local drives.

 

[randompixel]

Yep, this is what puzzles me... they M3 is already out around a lot of the world, so surely we'd already have seen the difference for example with the rear bench seat. And the manual door release. I mean sure, the sport seats might be P territory, but the other end... would have thought would already be evident. Unless of course this is all for a "tweak" due in another year or two. Odd.

They are already building them with the rear bench headrest. I think for that Green was just pointing out it was different in the code assets from the old version for people who may not have realised. I think people (websites) treat him as a Tesla insider where he is just a user with lots of spare Tesla salvage hardware that he can decompile code updates from. Sometimes this leads to leaks and sometimes it leads to things that have already come out. The door release tweet other people have pointed out the left image is the front and the right image is the new rear release.

There also seems to be assumptions that just because reviewers have had a look at Highland that this is the final version with no changes for the next 2-3 years but that doesn't tally up with prior experience where Tesla seem to be making small changes constantly. The review models could be different from the launch models could be different from the Q2/24 models in many small ways.

 

[Zilla91]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if we get some kind of indicator autonomy driven by the navigation. It would be a relatively simple tweak to have the navigation system indicate for you on approach to a junction or turn. There are pitfalls with that of course; our mini roundabouts are difficult enough to indicate around manually, then once you add in things like magic roundabouts it all goes out the window completely...

As @ACarneiro says, not everyone drives everywhere with the navigation set. I certainly don't use it unless i'm either a) going somewhere new or b) travelling far so I need to have the charging stops plotted for me (and even then, I tend to ignore the nav as I can do the Newcastle - London drive blindfolded having done it so many times).

The other glaring issue is that the lane guidance on the nav is absolutely pants and there are so many instances where it tells you to go into the wrong lane when approaching the roundabout. If it can't even get that right (and I'm not blaming Tesla for this, it's the map data as other cars suffer with the same issue) then there's zero chance it can correctly indicate for you

 

[spdpsba]

And please, for everyone else, no jokes about BMW drivers, its a little sad if that’s the best you can come up with

I can see where the loyalty is , cmon, it is just a joke and a bad joke. But that doesn’t exclude many BMW drivers who literally behave as XXXXX - you can fill in whatever you like.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

I can see where the loyalty is , cmon, it is just a joke and a bad joke. But that doesn’t exclude many BMW drivers who literally behave as XXXXX - you can fill in whatever you like.

And some Tesla owners don’t?

I cringe driving a Tesla sometimes and seeing the excuses some people make on behalf of Tesla to the point they’re suggesting buying stick on indicator stalks.

You can either call Tesla out for making absolutely stupid decisions in the hope they will change, or you can pander to them and excuse anything they do. Which do you think will make the better company long term?

 

[Jason71]

I can see where the loyalty is , cmon, it is just a joke and a bad joke. But that doesn’t exclude many BMW drivers who literally behave as XXXXX - you can fill in whatever you like.

While i was teaching my daughter to drive recently i saw some awful driving. Including driving the wrong way around a mini roundabout to overtake. Going in the left lane at a T junction then turning right to overtake etc etc and my daughter was not driving badly she just commited the crime of having L plates. Why do i mention this? Because litterally 90% of these incidents were BMWs. The other 10% were Audis. Sometimes stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason.

 

[MrBadger]

Unfortunately that mentality is making it to Tesla. I've seen some equally awful driving from Tesla drivers, potentially worse, as they are are fully utilising the acceleration so margins are even finer.

I probably would have had a Tesla rear end me in early days had I not have pulled quickly back into left lane. They must have floored it from 5 cars back (which is why I didn't see them when I started to start my manoeuvre) as I moved in to a right lane of a very short link road to do an officially marked 180 back round a roundabout to access a car park in the opposite direction. On reflection I should not have moved, as their car should have slammed on causing them to *sugar* themselves, but being a Tesla, who knows how it would have handled the situation.

And many don't already use indicators such as one last week who almost side swiped us when they pulled across 3 lanes of motorway without indicating and we had to brake to avoid. I guess Tesla have done the analysis and worked out that very few Tesla owners use indicators so they are redundant and can be removed.

 

[Jason71]

So autoexpress got their hands on a highland:

"What’s less intuitive is how the indicators have been placed on the steering wheel. The stalks have been removed completely.
At first, this doesn’t seem like too much of a challenge. Leaving a car park or approaching a junction with the steering wheel dead ahead, the buttons are exactly where you want them to be. They self-cancel once you’ve made a turn, and even know when you’ve changed lanes. But try to find those switches on the exit of a roundabout – with half a turn of lock or more – and you’ll have no choice but to give up."

Yay.

 

[Krash]

…You can either call Tesla out for making absolutely stupid decisions in the hope they will change, or you can pander to them and excuse anything they do. Which do you think will make the better company long term?

Or you can realize that your efforts have no effect on the company.