Tesla has started to deliver a new version of its yoke steering wheel and it now features a normal horn.
When Tesla unveiled the new Model S with the “yoke” butterfly steering wheel, it was controversial. Some were worried about the actual shape of the wheel being problematic, while others were concerned about the lack of drive stalk to choose the drive mode.
As for the former, we thought that the automaker wouldn’t risk bringing the controversial yoke steering wheel to market without a nonlinear steering curve enabled by a steer-by-wire system – especially knowing that Tesla has been developing a steer-by-wire system.
However, as Tesla started deliveries of the new Model S Plaid in 2021, we were surprised to see that the wheel had a normal 14.0:1 steering ratio, and it is proving to be impractical at lower speeds. CEO Elon Musk later confirmed that Tesla was indeed working on progressive steering, but it was still years away. Tesla has since released steer-by-wire on Cybertruck.
As for the lack of stalks, Tesla replaced all their functions with force touch buttons on the wheel, even for things like turn signals and the horn.
Musk’s logic is that “all input is an error”, and that the car should automatically perform all the functions that were on the stalks (now on the force touch buttons).
However, the capability is not quite there yet, especially when it comes to the horn, and Tesla was quite stubborn at first when it comes to the yoke steering wheel. It eventually started to offer a round wheel, which it even made standard last year.
Now, Tesla is releasing a new version of the yoke steering wheel for Model S and Model X.
New vehicles being delivered are being spotted with this new version of the yoke steering wheel:
The biggest change is the new physical horn now at the center of the wheel. This has been one of the most requested changes, as it is a more natural way to use the horn.
Some are also noticing an overall better build quality for the yoke wheel.
Otherwise, the controls remain the same.