Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Tell me this isn't the final steering wheel

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
It's a touchbag


phrasing.jpeg
 
  • Funny
Reactions: JeffK
For the purposes of this thread, the latest pictures show the wheel has stitching.
http://i.imgur.com/nYwmKyJ.jpg
Also from the second angle, the trim has a second dark gray/silver color.
http://i.imgur.com/S6erzYN.jpg

To me the center piece looks weird, less finished than the rest of the interior - It is ok from a distance but if you zoom in it looks beaten up as if they recycled it from the crash tests.. - The steering wheel is a central design element that deserves a lot of attention from designers. You would think it is not the last piece of the car they would design, so I would say it is still not the final design. Just a better placeholder than the initial ones. That would also explain why they still bother covering it up most of the time (why would you do that otherwise?)
 
The steering wheel is a central design element that deserves a lot of attention from designers. You would think it is not the last piece of the car they would design, so I would say it is still not the final design.

I hope your right, cause it does need some help and is inconsistent with the design and finish level on the rest of the interior.

If this steering wheel is what Tesla delivers, I hope the aftermarket response quickly with some carbon fiber, wood, or brushed aluminum covers for the face of the spokes.
 
Slightly late to this, but here are my thoughts.

The rim and spokes of the wheel look production ready in the white car, not so much in the blue one as the 6 o'clock spoke looks proto-typed.

The centre airbag/ horn "boss" with the T on doesn't looked finished in either, you can see what look like hand tooling marks. Personally I think it's still a stand-in for a production part, maybe they are waiting on final supplier part. (Cutting it close!)

I like the new stalks. Clearly moving away from Mercedes for switch gear means they have been able to stream line things, and rather than using a control designed for an automatic they have been able to use something more applicable to Tesla. (We can't really see, but the window switches also seem darker than the MB ones, so I'm presuming they are new too. )

I'm reserving judgement on these a little, as until we've actually used them we won't know how they feel to operate. Tesla got the benefit of some of the best weighted stalk controls in the market by piggybacking on Mercedes parts bin. Let's hope these feel as good. If they do, personally I'd be super happy if those stalks filtered up to the S/X.

I can't see how the steering wheel adjusts. I'm presuming at this price point it's a manual locking lever under the column shroud. (Though could be electric but exclusively operated from the screen. I guess we will have to wait and see).

As for the two sphere's . They look to me like the scroll wheels in gaming mice, and likely to rock left / right giving the same number of functions as the model S's scroll + two buttons. I like the concept, and it clearly reduces wheel clutter. It does look a little bland, but maybe that's because their is no iconography / graphics, like you would have with separate physical buttons. Of course this also means, you could fully customise what they do switch left / right.

Overall I actually like these cars as presented, at least visually. Proof of the pudding for car interiors really is how they feel in the key touch points (stalks handles steering wheel). I don't think these are the $35k versions, more likely the premium spec. how well the cabin fares after swapping the leather out for fabric and some of the door handles out for plastics in the base models that's harder to judge.
 
  • Helpful
Reactions: FlatSix911
Waoouuuhhh This was my first car :) few years ago...
My French teacher in high school had one of these. Talk about basic and minimalistic! No outside rear-view mirror, side windows hinge in the middle rather than roll up and down, seats are like lawn furniture (the kind with aluminum tube frame), the skinny tires look like they're about to buckle when the car is loaded with cargo. She must have loved the car because she bought a new one to replace the previous one that wore out. :)
 
My French teacher in high school had one of these. Talk about basic and minimalistic! No outside rear-view mirror, side windows hinge in the middle rather than roll up and down, seats are like lawn furniture (the kind with aluminum tube frame), the skinny tires look like they're about to buckle when the car is loaded with cargo. She must have loved the car because she bought a new one to replace the previous one that wore out. :)

The 2CV was hugely innovative for its day. Front wheel drive, radial tyres, off road capable etc. etc.

At one point the waiting list was 5 years long! Total sales 3.8 million (more if you include derivatives).

This is what the press were saying about it:
In 1953, ‘Autocar’ in a technical review of the car, wrote of, “…the extraordinary ingenuity of this design, which is undoubtedly the most original since the Model T Ford”.

It was described by CAR magazine journalist and author L. Setright as “the most intelligent application of minimalism ever to succeed as a car.”

If Tesla can do half as well with the Model 3 they will have done well ;)
 
Tesla M3 is the new Beetle (20-million-something sales)! Simply because it will be the new icon/reference, just as the Ford Model T or the VW Beetle were, in their times. Just my humble opinion of course; feel free to judge me forty years from now :)
 
  • Funny
Reactions: FlatSix911