Tesla Driving Gloves Review

[Dstrohl]

OK, lets see...

• Tesla model S on order... check.
• HPWC installed in garage... check.
• Straight-jacket ready for the wait... (wife took care of this).
• how to operate the touch screen when it's really cold out... hmm...

So, I did a search for touch screen gloves (Google "touch screen gloves" nearch) nope, nothing I liked. Then I saw the "touch screen gloves" at the Tesla store (Tesla — Men's Touch Screen Leather Driving Gloves). They looked pretty good, but I wanted to try them on for size. However, as it turns out, the Tesla stores and service centers don't carry any thing from the design collection, just the apparel. so I put it off for a while.

Fast forward to Christmas, I had just received my Model S a week or so earlier and my wife gave me the Tesla gloves for a Christmas present. So for anyone who is interested, here are my thoughts:

Un-boxing:
They came in a nice black cardboard box. Not as nice as some, but for something I am going to throw away soon, it's probably just about right.


However, on the side of the box, something splooged onto the side of the box. Not enough to return it, (after all, I am going to be throwing it away soon.)but annoying for an expensive set of gloves.


In the box:
Inside the box was a nice red TESLA pouch with the gloves in it... complete with silica gel. (and nope, I didn't eat it).


(PART 2 in the next post).

 

[Dstrohl]

TESLA touch screen driving gloves review... part 2:

Glove Design:
The outer styling seems pretty standard for a leather glove, with the Tesla logo stamped into the snap and on the inner tag.


Touch Screen Sensing:
when you look closely at the thumb and pointing finger (or index finger, first finger, F/J finger (for typests on QWERTY keybpards), you can see the pad that transfers the conductivity from your finger to the glove (for more info, see this writeup: The Reason Normal Gloves Don't Work On Your Smartphone | The Huffington Post).

I turned the gloves inside out, and you can see that the patches are only on the two fingers (thumb/index finger). While many gloves seem to do most of the fingers, and this does preclude touch typing on the screen, to be fair, I cant see using anything else really anyway. But, if you do use a different finger (you may want to consider a different pair)


Usability:
I tried using them in the car and they worked fine. They felt a little weird since I was touching something that was not 100% behind where the pad of my finger was, but that was pretty quick to get used to. I also tried them on my iPhone and they worked OK. I could use just the tip of the index finger and it would sense correctly. Doing thumb typing didn't seem to work well for me though. the pad was just too wide, and the tip of the thumb didn't seem to work. This could be more because of me than the gloves, but either way, if I lived by typing on my phone, (like my teenage daughter) they would probably not be ideal.

Comfort:
They are surprisingly comfortable, They are definitely not thin driving gloves, nor are they heavy cold weather gloves, but for a medium weight, warm glove, they definitely do the job.

Size:
I didn't order them myself because I wear gloves that range from medium in one brand, to XL in another. so I have learned to try them on before buying them. My wife ordered large, and luckily these fit well, fingers all the way to the ends and the gloves touching the webbing between fingers. With not much extra play around the palm.

I didn't have a cloth tape measure around to measure my hand as you normally would for gloves, so the below pics will have to do. if you measure my hands across, its almost 4" (10cm) and about 8" (20cm) from fingertip to wrist.


Summary:
While I cant compare this with other touch screen gloves, I would say they are good gloves, a little pricey for leather gloves, but around the cost of a pair of designer gloves.

Compared to other top end auto branded gloves, they are a good deal;

• Tesla Touch screen gloves: $100
• Ferrari Touch screen gloves: $150 (Men’s Cavallino Rampante touchscreen sports gloves - Ferrari Store)
• Porsche Leather gloves: $150 (Men’s leather gloves – Classic)

 

[Jim J]

Holy crap. Good thing your wife took care of the straight jacket part.

 

[Blu Zap]

The Tesla gloves look great. Thanks for the review.
I got in the habit of using a touchscreen stylus year around. It keeps the messy fingerprints off the screen. So I would think a comfortable pair of gloves with a stylus may accomplish the same thing. Certainly not as classy and high tech as these gloves!

 

[Dstrohl]

Holy crap. Good thing your wife took care of the straight jacket part.

yup, she's always thinking ahead.

 

[Dstrohl]

The Tesla gloves look great. Thanks for the review.
I got in the habit of using a touchscreen stylus year around. It keeps the messy fingerprints off the screen. So I would think a comfortable pair of gloves with a stylus may accomplish the same thing. Certainly not as classy and high tech as these gloves!

I played with a stylus a little, and it didn't work well for me, it was always bouncing around while driving and I seemed to need to pay more attention to it than my fingers. (not a good thing while driving).

I can see though it could be better if you had steadier hands.

What almost feels more useful would be a trackball mounted somewhere, or joystick. I know I can put a USB mouse in it, I am thinking about trying one of the trackballs to see how that actually works.

 

[Nóirín]

Are the touchscreen pads on the thumb and finger on both gloves or just one glove?
Live in Ireland, we drive on the other side of the road so need them on the left glove.
Thank you.