One of the most controversial changes with Tesla’s new Model S and X redesign is the yoke-style steering wheel.
Even looking beyond the weird shape, there are several other oddities that are sure to stun people the first time they get into these cars.
To start, the new wheel has no stalks. These small arms come out behind most steering wheels to enable windshield wipers and turn signals. Telsa also used this arm to trigger autopilot. All of these features are now handled by minimal buttons on the steering wheel and digital buttons.
That said, the company’s also using AI to replace the gear stick that lets you select park, drive or reverse. For instance, if you start your car in a garage, the car will know that the front is obstructed and that you need to reverse. You need to step on the brake pedal to initiate this change from park to reverse, according to Electrek.
There are also buttons for park, reverse and drive located at the bottom of the centre console.
Regarding the steering wheel buttons, the left side has both turn signals and the high-beam button. The right side has a horn icon, a microphone and some windshield wiper controls.
However new-age this is, the buttons on the wheel seem easy enough to use. It’s the fact that now even more controls are being moved to the touch screen that worries me since digital ecosystems can become very noisy and hard to navigate quickly.
This is also a significant reason why texting and driving has been banned in several regions around the world in the first place.
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