With the advancement of emerging technologies electric cars have become more and more common, Teslas are included in this heavily. In the UK they are much more regulated and limited unlike in America but a lot of the new features are still in the car it is just features like self driving that aren't enabled in the UK.
With the release of the new 2024 Tesla Model 3 saw a big change in the features of the steering wheel and steering column stalks which previously used for changing between Park, Drive, Reverse and Neutral which has now been removed completely.
The numbers labeled 1 and 2 are the new buttons on the steering wheel for indicating the car left and right rather than stalks off of the steering column. The issue with this is that roundabouts are not used in America but rather four way junctions so what will end up happening in the UK when people are indicating around a roundabout and then try and change their indication whilst steering around it, I feel strongly that this will result in a large amount of crashes from trying to multitask whilst driving as well as indications being missed and cars to the side or behind will not realise a driver is exiting the roundabout.
The secondary issue from removing the stalks is changing gear, even though the car is automatic it still needs to be shifted from Park, Drive, Reverse and Neutral for the car to be able to function which was also previously done with the stalks. It has now been changed to a couple different options to change between these gears but the main one publicised and shown off to potential buyers is its electronically featured in the top right corner of the centre console screen.
However they have built in two other options for shifting the driving states of the car:
- Use of the steering wheel scroll wheels
- Buttons labeled P, R, N, D on the overhead console
So if two other options for this simple function have been built in for easier driving of the car then surely the use of the centre console is just to make the car look more futuristic for both aesthetic and brand purposes.
Both of these flaws in the 2024 Tesla Model 3 show that Tesla are trying to go so “futuristic” in style of their new models that they are straying so far away from functionality and actual use of their electric vehicles.
