I got the Tesla steering column to produce some CAN (note had to provide power and ground to the CAN and LIN connections). The only levers that are producing CAN frames so far is the Park button and the steering column adjustment lever (up, down, in, out).
The frame IDs produced are 0404, 03, 0E, 45, 6D, and 032F. The steering column adjustment lever direction is byte 4 on the first frame with ID 45. Frames with ID 03 and 0E, byte 4, seems to contain a lever press duration or force measurement. All the other frames with IDs 0404, 6D, and 032F don't seem to contain any useful information (so far as I can tell).
When the Park or column adjustment lever is triggered the column produces about 5000 frames. I suspect it is waiting for a CAN message or handshake from the Body Control Module to confirm that the press / lever movement has been registered. The motors on the steering column are activated by the body control module, so the body control module has to receive the lever signal and then orchestrate the voltage & polarity to the respective motor.
I suspect that the reason why the Park and Column Adjustment lever are the only CAN producing controls is because the other controls don't have any function in an inactive car. I suspect that the other controls would wake up if they received the right activation frames from the body control module. This type of signal(s) must be produced just as the car is turned on.
REQUEST!!! If anyone has some wake up CAN logs from the Body Control Module, I'd be really interested to try them out.
I'm running SavvyCAN, GVRET, and CANDue (from EVTV). Many thanks to TheBlackKnight for helping me get the system up and running.