Consumer Reports recently purchased a 2021 Tesla Model S for our test program, which now features a steering yoke rather than a traditional circular steering wheel. We share our first impressions on what it is like to use this steering input on the highway, in the driveway, and in crowded parking lots. We also discuss the other big changes to this vehicle, including its lack of directional and wiper stalks (now a touch-sensitive button on the yoke), horn placement (also a touch button), and touchscreen/predictive gear shifting mechanism.
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SHOW NOTES
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00:00 – Introduction
00:29 – 2021 Tesla Model S Steering Yoke Impressions
06:17 – Driving Tesla Model S
12:11 – Steering Wheel Controls
15:01 – Gear Selector
18:00 – Safety Pitfalls of Unintuitive Controls
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Why We Think Tesla’s New Steering Yoke Shows Little Benefit
Tesla’s New Steering Yoke Shows Little Benefit and Potential Safety Pitfalls
4K Review: 2016 Tesla Model S Quick Drive
Tesla Model S 2013 quick take
Guide to Car Safety
How to Safely Work on Your Car at Home
Coronavirus Resource Hub
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I have an idea! Add a cheater… a roller that you can clamp to the rim of the steering wheel. You then twist the wheel in a circle. Great video!
But the bottom is square… it’s still not a circle. I know there are flat bottom steering wheels but this is way squarer than those.
All of the changes Tesla has made to the Model S seem things they’ve done just to do them and see what happens. This means they are beta testing these changes on public safety. Not just those in the car, but every other vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian. It’s irresponsible and cynical, just to try and get free publicity for a car that isn’t selling well.
Wow, Tesla doesn’t respond to CR. Their loss.
Another development tested by the people who can afford $100k to be experimented on.
you KNOW the fanboys are going to rave about the yoke and how amazing it is and how anyone who disagrees is a total loser. Sigh.
I can already hear the Tesla fan boys complaining about how CR is so mean to Tesla, and you don’t know progress, and yada-yada-yada…. Get over it, Tesla is trying to change things that don’t need changing!! Why can’t they concentrate on the things that truly matter!!
The yoke is an answer to a question that NOBODY ASKED.
The problem with touch control is you cannot feel it first before actuating it. Once you feel it, you already actuated it. Haptic feedback doesn’t solve this.
It’s like blind typing. The fingers need to feel where the keys are first.
My gym switched from mechanical paper towel dispensers to electric ones. Lo and behold, the electric ones both broke down and would not dispense paper towels. Technology for technology’s sake is simply idiotic.
Personally, I think the yoke should be made illegal, along with the horn system. You can literally program in different horn sounds, including song snippets. While cute to show your friends, it defeats the purpose of a horn (warning) and presents a danger to both the driver and people/cars about to be hit. After all, if you hit the horn and Row, Row, Row Your Boat plays no one is going to think there is anything wrong.
As a long time motorcyclist I’ve wondered in the past if there could be an alternative to a round steering wheel in a car. But having to look down all the time to perform simple tasks is not even going backward, its going the wrong way down a one way street. Any change should make the job of driving simpler, safer and perhaps more fun. If this idea doesn’t meet with the buyers approval then that doesn’t say much about Tesla’s marketing department.
Kinda funny that people pay boat load of money to subject themselves to be test subjects.
Tesla needs a software update for the yoke, so turning the steering wheel while driving at different speeds moves the wheels proportional amounts and with different amounts of resistance by speed.
You should never need to turn a yoke type ?steering adjuster? more than 90′ in any direction from center.
This might be one of the best episodes you’ve done in years. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Humm. Sound like some questionable solutions to nonexisting problems. Crossing the Model S off my list.
I bet it would be difficult to drive around the “Bergwerk” corner at the Nuerburgring. It has an angle of about 150 degrees.
I think you are falling prey to the strategy pf Tesla’s supposedly-nonexistent PR department: the yolk is just a distraction to stop you from noticing that the Model S is pretty much a nine year old design! I remember when my neighbor had a gray 2010 Jaguar XJ and then bought a gray Model S and I didn’t notice for a few months, because the cars looked pretty similar. It is very much an early 2000s design that has not aged well in my eyes, looking flabby. I had thought that the Cybertruck was a hint of a new Tesla design language, but that is clearly not so. The worrying fact is that Tesla doesn’t seem to have a meaningful planned evolution of the S, and that all Teslas are available in so few colors that it’s a major disincentive to buy one, when you’ll pass dozens of twins on the road each day.
I can’t help thinking that EVs will eventually return us to something like the 1950s, when companies like Tesla will build and sell skateboards and then coachbuilders will offer various bodies to fit. I would love that. We are ready to buy an EV but the choices are underwhelming, all pretty soulless and heavy. My wife would love the ORA Good Cat that was showcased at the Munich auto show but it will probably not be offered here. As far as I go, no one has bested the BMW i3 in EV design, and it still looks completely original, having aged far better than the Model S.
Looks like Tesla is getting nostalgic for 1980′ TV. Between the steering wheel and screens, I think there was a lot of inspiration from KITT. Maybe turbo boost to jump over things is next at Tesla?
May I humbly suggest future Tesla yoko ownos purchase bump dots from their favorite online retailer? They’re perfect for situations like this or for the visually impaired.
Panic engineering by Tesla as all other car manufacturers are now catching up to them with their own better built Electric vehicles.
Tesla is no longer the niche.
Isn’t Tesla being sued for screens that go blank? And now the gear selector is part of the screen? Cool.