The steering wheel setup in the Tesla Model 3 — seen above in a shot from the media event last week — is not the version that will be in the final car, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said tonight in a series of tweets.
Instead, the “real steering controls and system” for the Model 3 feel “like a spaceship.”Musk went on to say that the lack of a traditional dashboard and instrument cluster “will make sense after part 2” of the Model 3 unveiling. That’s expected to come much closer to production.
I think he’s getting rid of the steering wheel and replacing it with a joystick like device.
Trekkies rejoice!!
It will be interesting to see how the Model 3 works out.
I’ve read they have 268,000 pre-orders (and counting) which is well over twice as many cars as Tesla has ever sold combined.
If this ends up being successful, the car industry has a new competitor.
(The other possibility is that it takes 4-5 years to fill the current orders and Tesla ends up looking very bad.)
Tesla is losing about $20,000 per car on the Model S. Now they have taken 200 million up front, but if they are still losing thousands per car, that would not be good.
They are also building and running superchargers at their own expense, and they will presumably need many more of these if sales are higher, unless Elon is OK with customers having to wait hours for a ‘fast charge’ that is half an hour to go 170 miles.
If their losses per car are substantially less, they could be helping themselves by taking away the $20k loss sales from the S.
I think I’ll hold out for the Tesla Model 4, with fully implemented mind control of the vehicle.
That’ll give new meaning to the old adage, “I think, therefore I drive.” 😉
Or the Tesla 5 where your mind is transferred to another robotic body over the internet so you don’t actually have to go anywhere.
Nice. Dumbsticks for smug pricks. My Tesla damn well gonna have a mouse and keyboard for precision steering — no sloppy smoothing, no pussy auto-aim.
Back to the future – coal fired cars.
That was so funny I think I peed a little.
Marc, he said ‘feel’ like a spaceship.
Spaceships don’t have steering wheels.
Exactly. He didn’t say it would be like a spaceship, but would feel like one. So perhaps you are jumping to conclusions about the look.
Great! More confusing non-standard controls. When is DOT going to get involved like they did with PRNDL?
Tesla has a problem, in that they are competing with other luxury brands and the car looks like a winner. The problem is that Tesla and all things Elon are a cult like Apple and Prius. Those guys have to constantly brag about how great their product is, because they need to justify it to themselves. So while making a good car, Tesla has to do something to make it inferior to serve the cult needs.
Without that, the cult followers will be missing something. Indeed, the IPhone has lost some of that, becoming normal, even though now it is completely inferior.
The Prius is a common enough car that someone bragging about it …
b) has some loose marbles
b) or is an old fuddy-duddy geriatric.
There have been 2 million sold in the USA.
Good grief, let’s get on with Hillary and Humma and their lesbian love affair.
Don’t worry, the Trumpster will get to that soon enough.
I think he’s getting rid of the steering wheel and replacing it with a joystick like device.
Ya. Right! It’s not like people aren’t already out there driving around in their living rooms. Take a look. I bet it takes less than 5 vehicles where you will see someone behind the wheel having a phone conversation, fiddling with a radio/gadget or moronically using the front window as a video game view screen — stuff you might do in your own living room. Now some jerk wants to put a joystick in place of the steering wheel to complete the experience? I say NO! Either make fully automated smart cars that take the idiot out of the equation that involves LIFE AND DEATH or start making vehicles like what Fred Flintstone might drive.
It bothers me that Felon Musk is talking about how this car saves lives. With electricity coming from coal, this car increases air pollution. Shouldn’t they first develop the solar power before putting out a car that increases pollution?
He should at least give preference on the preorders to those who are on solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, or nuclear power.