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Steering column and wheel, I love it.

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I just spent an hour going through a beta. I found that I love the steering wheel and the column. I see why they chose it. MB has made good choices. It tilts and telescopes more than most. The controls have intuitive feel even though I have only ever driven a MB around the block previously. I don't want the push button PRNDB any more. The column shifter brings me back to my youth.
 
The column shifter brings me back to my youth.

Makes me feel like I'm driving my grandfather's car. Yick. As I said in another thread, stalks should be for operations you need to perform while driving and not taking your eyes off the road. Changing from P-R-N-D is not one of them.

What saddens me is that they kept this silly column shifter, but didn't keep the heated steering wheel. At least if Tesla wants us to feel like we're driving some conventional car, give us the conventional luxuries!
 
I need to quickly switch from D to R when I back into my driveway so I need this to be quickly and easily accessible in my car. I live on a busy street so I need to quickly get out of traffics way so I need to perform that task without taking my eyes off the road.
 
... I need to perform that task without taking my eyes off the road.

I'm not buying that, sorry. You have to come to a complete stop in order to shift from Drive to Reverse. A quick glance at the PRND control is nothing when you're not moving. It's when you're at 65MPH+ freeway speeds and want to change something like wiper speed or the radio volume that controls not requiring you to take your eyes off the road are important.

Note that I'm not advocating that PRND be hard to get to, it just doesn't need to be the most accessible thing on the steering wheel, which it is in Model S.
 
I haven't seen how accessible it is at the moment, from talking to TM sales guys and the fact that things are constantly being challenged and decided upon that until the cars go to get their safety rating that it's all free to change. It's important that we can switch the P-R-N-D reasonably quickly and not just for my special case, but I also don't want to accidentally trigger it either in my day to day driving.
 
It's important that we can switch the P-R-N-D reasonably quickly and not just for my special case, but I also don't want to accidentally trigger it either in my day to day driving.

1) It's not going to change. Tesla specifically went out to find an OEM (Mercedes, I believe) who had a complete solution they'd sell to Tesla for steering wheel and controls. Doing so saved Tesla time. Way too late to change now.

2) The actual shifting will have Tesla's electronic interlocks, preventing a bad shift. Like my old BMW 325is whose windshield I wiped every now and then whether it needed wiping or not, it'll be interesting to count how many times my touchscreen says "Invalid shift attempt" (or whatever the message will be) while driving spiritedly.
 
I went to the Tesla store at Oak Brook IL (Chicago) last night to nail down my choices before I get the call after 3 long years to lock in my money.
A winter package (wheels and tires) is likely.
The car in the store is sans Motor and PEM and cells in the battery. They have to push it around. I expect this is partially to prevent any driving it off!!!
The door latches are still a work in progress.
The back headrests are required and will happen. I hope something small or that flips down.
The software for the pano roof is still buggy. It required a reset.
Tesla still refuses to support Chadmo and a black market solution may be needed for some... I will not touch it. (warranty)
Width 77.5 inches without mirrors.
Width 87.5 inches with beta mirrors. They could easily be made narrower. Standard single garage door is 93 inches clearance. My Malibu is 83.5 inches.
Wingspan is 158 inches with both doors completely open in resting position. Slightly wider with pressure.
In the beta there are three resting spots for the front doors. The smallest allows egress at 115 inches both sides open.
The doors are thicker than other doors in cars. This may help with crash testing especially with aluminum or allow room for the special handles.
The reason that people got in the back awkwardly at the factory event is the thickness of the rear doors. I expect that this partially led to the falcon doors on the Model X.
The Frunk will not fit a full size tire. It will allow 24 to 25 inch diameter tire. The 21 inch rim fits with over one inch but less than two inches to spare. Perhaps a 19 inch rim with a very, very low profile tire.
The lacewood is a dark gray reminiscent of slate with dime size circles.
The bamboo has a hint of gray in addition to its obvious brown tone. I expect this is to help it mate with the black interior colors and the gray piping in the performance versions.
The middle position has the most head and foot room which contrasts with the back seat in most(all?) other cars. 6 footers may hit the ceiling on the back side positions depending on final seat position and headliner. Remember this is still a beta.
There will be only two USB ports and they will be on the front side, lower part of the center armrest/cup holder/rear ventilation unit.
The touchscreen will unlock the frunk but not open it. The rear hatch will unlock and open from the touch screen.
The white leather is no longer white but a light cream/tan color. The tan is a little darker and closer to the tan interior in most other cars. I mention this because the colors have changed since the factory event and computer monitors do not tell the story well. I do not think that any picture will explain the lacewood or carbon fiber.
The driver's seat is as comfortable as Mercedes Benz (usually thought of as the best). The leather seats are great. The back seats are the best I have sat in except for headroom considerations. The tallest person should sit in the middle.
The turbine wheels are made from the exact same materials other than a paint or coating that gives the fairly light grey tone for the performance. They are coated with a very slick substance that should allow easy cleaning.
Lots of foot traffic.
Lots of interest especially in the Signature Red color. "Sorry we're all sold out."
The black with red piping for the performance is stunning but too hot for me.
The music server was very nice and filling. It will be very good on the production model though this one is not yet finished. No subwoofer.
The tilt and telescope steering wheel had great tactile response. More telescoping than I have seen before in a car.

There will always be some compromises especially for those of us who are early adopters but I was looking to see if I would regret the car. If so I would have gone with my general production number and saved money to by an X or something else in the future. I foresee no regrets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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Back on topic; William did you get the opportunity to try the shifter? In my youth, I needed to put my hand behind the stick, yank it forward, and pull it into the correct gear while watching the little metal arrow on the indicator clunk into place. Hearing that the Model S had the gear selector on the column did not bring back fond memories. Then I realized that with electronic gear selection, the stick might behave more like a turn signal, smoothly clicking into place. If you had a chance, how did it feel?
 
It moves very smoothly. I am old enough and the car is mildly retro enough that I might have enjoyed the clunking and shaking of the car when going through the gears. All the controls on the column are top notch , that is what I was getting at with the topic.
 
Back on topic; William did you get the opportunity to try the shifter? In my youth, I needed to put my hand behind the stick, yank it forward, and pull it into the correct gear while watching the little metal arrow on the indicator clunk into place. Hearing that the Model S had the gear selector on the column did not bring back fond memories.

You obviously never had a DS-21. You could shift through the gears with a flick of the finger (the shifter was top centre on the column rather then on the side). You shifted, but there was no clutch. The starter "button" was moving the gear shift lever fully to the left, so you never started in gear, as sometimes happens with a manual transmission (ouch).
 
I have had both column automatics and three on the tree manual in addition to the standard gear shift position. It was odd to me when we lost bench front seats and the gear selector moved between the front seats. My current car has flippers if I want to manually shift. This is so OLD school. I will love the smooth 4.4 of the Tesla over my brother's faster Nissan GTR bumpy 3.7 seconds.
 
Back on topic; William did you get the opportunity to try the shifter? In my youth, I needed to put my hand behind the stick, yank it forward, and pull it into the correct gear while watching the little metal arrow on the indicator clunk into place. Hearing that the Model S had the gear selector on the column did not bring back fond memories. Then I realized that with electronic gear selection, the stick might behave more like a turn signal, smoothly clicking into place. If you had a chance, how did it feel?

I suspect this shifter is identical to those on other MB vehicles. It is quite easy to operate and very similar to a turn signal. Very smooth and nothing like the old mechanical levers from our ute.