Just the base model I believe

 

Thanks Bit.

For 90% of driving the yoke is fine because for a regular turn the way the steering ratio is you don't have to go a full turn. So even for a normal right turn you can just use your right hand at the top of the right side of the yoke to turn and you don't have to go all the way around but it does go about 180 degrees where the steering wheel is upside down. The hardest part is making a three point turn where you have to go more than a full revolution. The yoke is so wide and square that just the width and shape makes it awkward and has you reaching around for different parts of the yoke because you just aren't used to it. It's something that I will get used to over time but it will never feel natural like a normal steering wheel. For normal high speed driving, it's no problem at all unless you are on a race track which I will never be since it is my daily driver so it's a non-issue. If the question is whether a steering wheel is better, I would say 100% it would be better in every situation.

As for the horn, I don't use it that much anyway so it's a non-issue for me and I have only brushed it once by accident, which of course is when I was making a tight turn in a parking lot where I had to make a full revolution of the yoke trying to grab whatever part of the wheel I could.

The biggest faults I have with the yoke are a couple things. The turn signals with the capacitive buttons to me are not intuitive like a typical stalk and I'm not sure it ever will be for me. There is a raised line between the left and right signal button that you can feel with your thumb but even with that I find myself always looking down to see which arrow I am pushing. Since I am a very courteous driver, I actually use my turn signals all the time and this to me is an unnecessary complication. The second thing I don't care for is the little wheel/ball next to the turn signals to turn the volume up or change the radio station. Turning the radio volume up is easy since its like a wheel where you just use your thumb to wheel it up or down but to change the station you push or pull the round ball (that the volume wheel is attached to) with your thumb and it's tight and takes more effort than it needs to be so if you accidentally push the ball while you are pushing or pulling the ball, it turns the radio off. It's just a dumb design to me.

As for seeing the gauge cluster/screen, its pretty narrow from top to bottom so you could easily see between the airbag and the top of a steering wheel if it had one so that really isn't an excuse for having a yoke but in normal highway driving it's nice not having the top of the steering wheel there, it just feels more open.

It's also funny you bring up the HUD. For such a high tech car, it sure does miss the mark with technological features that many cars have and for most people that never had these features before, no big deal. For me with having some of these features in my BMW, it feels lacking a bit. For example, besides HUD, 360 camera for parking (which I know they could do with the cameras) and blind spot monitoring in the side view mirrors is something I am used to. Also, the auto high beams don't work as well as the BMW's and I feel like I am constantly flashing my high beams at cars either in front of me or coming towards me.

 

most of the base models are suffering now. telsa is capitalization on the short supply and they focus on the performance models that cost more

 

The yoke…from that description would remain a deal breaker for me. Really a shame.

 

patgilm, thanks so much for the excellent and quick write-up!

it just seems to me that they could have offered a regular wheel, even at $1000 option or something, and they'd have made money and not exactly a hard swap out. i guess one problem though is they couldn't re-use their regular round wheel as that still relies on turn signal stalk for example so it would be a new design anyway.

 

But that would be what buyers want, not what Elon wants them to want.

 

Starlink beams data into your brain so you want what Elon wants it's super obvious.

 

​​​​​​ Steve Jobs seemed to rub off on Elon. Except Steve Jobs would have a massive fit of he saw those panel gaps lol 😆

 

Yep, one of the many similarities! Yeah, he would...

It makes me wonder, if Jobs were alive today would he have a Tesla? He always drove Mercedes SLs because he appreciated the perfection in their build and design...

 

Elon would have to build him a custom Tesla with zero paint and panel issues. From people who worked with him, he was too much of a perfectionist

 

Steve may have bought Tesla itself. Iger thinks if Steve lived, he would have bought Disney too.

 

considering they cant produce enough cars to satisfy demand and are finishing 2 new factories in next few months to double their production, i am not so sure that Musk is wrong.

Part of Tesla lure is that high tech modern quirky image, different to anything else on the market. Yoke fits with no buttons, huge tablet minimalistic interior, quirky door handles, quirky wipers, hidden vents and everything else high tech quirky that they do.

It is not for everyone, but certainly seems to be for millions of people every year at high ASP and industry leading profit margin. Add to that leading charging network, best in industry technology, very hard to beat.

I dont even have any stock of theirs, lol.

 

Don't confuse people putting up with things to wanting things the way they are designed. It obviously doesn't hurt Tesla, but that doesn't mean that these design choices are good, and they are beginning to get Tesla in some legal trouble for safety.

IMHO these design changes around steering and flasher controls, etc are safety concerns.

 

Yet Tesla makes some of the safest cars on the road both in terms of likelihood of accidents and survivability. This is a good example of being convinced things are a certain way vs. how they really are.

Now if you want to talk about buttons and safety have you seen the steering wheel of most cars?

 

IMO I think the yoke is really cool. Something different and something that separates Tesla from Mercedes or Porsche or other brands at the same price point. Toyota has one too on their new upcoming EV, I can’t to read about it.