Photo: Tesla
Earlier this week, Tesla unveiled upgrades to the Model S and Model X, both inside the cabin and in terms of performance. Based on the photos for the online configurator, the facelift will also be reinventing the wheel, quite literally so.
Among the improvements / upgrades that stand out, there’s the issue of Model S Plaid+ becoming one of the quickest production cars in history, with a 0-60 time in under seconds, the extended range, and an upgraded cabin that includes a landscape display for the infotainment system and rear-seat touchscreens. Also here is what can only be described as Tesla’s attempt at reinventing the (steering) wheel, which now presents itself as a stalkless, yoke-like steering wheel or half-wheel.
As with all things Tesla, Tesla customers, industry watchers and the auto community as a whole has thoughts on the design: customers say it will work because it’s coming from Tesla, while pretty much everyone else is saying it’s a bad idea, if only for the fact that drivers are used to a round-shaped steering wheel. Many are also citing the “if it ain’t broke, why fix it” reason.
Perhaps more important than the shape itself is the complete absence of turning lights and gear shifter stalks. Asked about it on Twitter, Elon Musk said this was prompted by the fact that the car would be able to guess the “drive direction based on what obstacles it sees, context & nav map. You can override on touchscreen.”
This much hubbub eventually materialized into a very simple question: is this even legal? If you don’t know the answer, it’s ok, because not even the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) is sure about it.
“At this time, NHTSA cannot determine if the steering wheel meets Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards,” the agency says in a statement to Road&Track. “We will be reaching out to the automaker for more information.”
While the NHTSA is trying to figure this one out, The Drive did some digging around in the code on the Tesla website and learned that, until January 28, it included an option for a regular steering wheel, though it still did not have stalks. The option wasn’t one that you could choose in the configurator, but its mere existence in the code pointed to the possibility that Tesla was willing to revert to the old steering wheel if the yoke-like one failed to meet expectations.
As with all things Tesla, Tesla customers, industry watchers and the auto community as a whole has thoughts on the design: customers say it will work because it’s coming from Tesla, while pretty much everyone else is saying it’s a bad idea, if only for the fact that drivers are used to a round-shaped steering wheel. Many are also citing the “if it ain’t broke, why fix it” reason.
Perhaps more important than the shape itself is the complete absence of turning lights and gear shifter stalks. Asked about it on Twitter, Elon Musk said this was prompted by the fact that the car would be able to guess the “drive direction based on what obstacles it sees, context & nav map. You can override on touchscreen.”
This much hubbub eventually materialized into a very simple question: is this even legal? If you don’t know the answer, it’s ok, because not even the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) is sure about it.
“At this time, NHTSA cannot determine if the steering wheel meets Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards,” the agency says in a statement to Road&Track. “We will be reaching out to the automaker for more information.”
While the NHTSA is trying to figure this one out, The Drive did some digging around in the code on the Tesla website and learned that, until January 28, it included an option for a regular steering wheel, though it still did not have stalks. The option wasn’t one that you could choose in the configurator, but its mere existence in the code pointed to the possibility that Tesla was willing to revert to the old steering wheel if the yoke-like one failed to meet expectations.
No more stalks. Car guesses drive direction based on what obstacles it sees, context & nav map. You can override on touchscreen.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2021
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