I’ve made no secret of the fact that I find Tesla’s removal of control stalks for controls like turn indicators in favor of buttons mounted on the steering wheel, to be gracious, idiotic. Also, stupid. The way turn signal stalks work in conjunction with the motion of the steering wheel is a sublime and under-appreciated bit of human-machine design. While I know there are some hardcore Tesla fans who disagree with me about this – and, let’s be honest, probably every significant decision I’ve made in my life – I think Team Stalk is being proved the winner here over Team Stupid Buttons thanks to the existence of one particular sort of aftermarket product exclusively for Teslas:
Yes, that’s right. There is a company out there making add-on stalks for your Tesla’s steering column that can be programmed to act as turn indicator stalks, windshield wiper controls, gear shifters, or any number (well, 60, so not any number) of other functions. The reason these stalks exist at all is, again, because Tesla’s insistence that steering-wheel-mounted buttons for these functions is better has proven to be abysmally wrong.
I say this despite such compelling arguments in favor of the buttons as this:
To everyone arguing against Tesla removing stalks: what looks easier to you? pic.twitter.com/UE0Cl57xZh
— Jeff ????✌️ (@JeffTutorials) May 25, 2023
Not only does that guy seem to approach the physical world with the same sort of motor skills and grace as a basic-cable everyman almost killing themselves with a bowl of chips and a remote control in some stupid late-night infomercial, but he’s just flat out-wrong, and the existence of these stalks proves it.
Stalks just work better, and Tesla accessory maker Enhance gets this, which is why they make their S3XY Stalks for your Model 3, which are available for both the left and right side of the steering column.
Look at that! A turn signal stalk, just like a car not forced into bad ideas by some sinister outside forces of clandestine dumbshit cabals, or whatever led to the no-stalks decision. And they’re wireless! They communicate via what appears to be Bluetooth, which seems incredibly simple to install until you realize that the Model 3 doesn’t have whatever sort of Bluetooth/radio interface into the systems you need for this to work, so you have to tear a bunch of trim off to install the “commander” as seen in this installation video:
Seriously, getting that commander in place isn’t exactly just a stick-on-and-go kind of deal:
And, once you do have it all installed and working, you will be privileged to be among the first in a new class of drivers, those who get to say a phrase like “hold on a sec; I need to change the battery in my turn signal stalk.”
Yes, you can drive by in your stalk-enhanced Tesla and really enjoy a good laugh at all those chumps in technically inferior cars that don’t get the opportunity to change batteries in their control stalks ever. Poor bastards.
This all feels like such a joke. Turn signal stalks – even if you can re-program them to turn on dome lights or heat your seats or whatever – just simply do not feel like something that one should ever have to buy as an aftermarket add-on part.
I think Enhance actually did a great job with these and they are fulfilling a need, but the fact that this need required fulfilling in the first place is just absurd. I was talking about this to our own captive designer The Bishop, and he came up with a possible similar product that is so inane and ridiculous I wish I’d thought of it:
A stick-on glovebox latch that works in the same way as these switches, so you don’t have to go through a stupid touchscreen to open the damn glove box.
That’s ridiculous, sure, but at the same time, not really? It’s basically doing the same thing as these stalks.
Reality sure has ended up ridiculous.
There is quite an active after market for things Tesla leaves out of cars. The extra screens I always thought were a good idea and cheap enough. I think a lot of people just want a round wheel and turn single they probably want wipers too I guess this thing can do that easy high beams might be nice too. But I guess alot of people just run high beams all the time or think they are auto. Sandy Monroe was praised Tesla for removing stocks I guess if you work in aviation it makes sense maybe that’s what he was trying to accomplish with the weird steering and buttons. If you look at he the cyber truck crowd you can tell a lot of them love star trek and maybe start wars and just want it because of that.
Next up: a stick on gear shift lever. In a couple of years we should have Teslas resembling actual cars fit for human operation. Sort of.
I think it already exists. People have modifing alot of the newer trucks with dials too.
The incredible dishonesty of selling cost cutting at the expense of convenience and safety as some kind of techno luxury genuinely disgusts me.
I think you’re forgetting Musk once said “Almost all input is error.” It’s not cost cutting – he honestly thinks all of the physical controls should go away. Next up is the steering wheel and accelerator & brake pedals.
The idea to substitute buttons for turn stalks confirms once again that there is a segment of the population who root for the Empire. One of them was in my elementary school at the time Star Wars came out. He preferred the Empire because their tech looked cooler. I was like, “That’s not the point, they’re evil and blew up a planet!” He just stared at me and said nothing. I got the feeling he was imagining murdering me. I bet he works for Tesla now.
Forget stalks, I want an AI orangutan that sticks its arm out the window to signal turns when I tell it.
Right turn, Clyde.
Trunk Monkey!
Enhance Auto has a bunch of neat stuff to customize Teslas. I’m tempted to get the Commander and their Wheel. There are a bunch of neat automations it can do.
This is an excellent example of what someone recently coined “RI,” aka Reverse Improvement. Stalks make sense for all the right reasons. Buttons are dumb.
Bill Maher coined that I think. He has several very good examples.
I will say that buttons are stupid, but IMO they’re only a little stupider than flappy paddle shifters. Those make tons of sense in certain track settings where most of your shifting occurs in straight lines and your hands are in position for them (and can’t leave the wheel). But in lower-speed maneuvering on a day to day basis, I’m still a fan of traditional shifters — both for manumatic shifting, as well as real manuals. It just makes sense.
But back to Tesla — so much of what they do with their ergonomics is dumb, this is just one of many.
I’ve had a couple cars with flappy paddles. The best thing about them was that they were small enough to ignore.
I installed flappy paddles on a USDM car that didn’t have them. They’re great for my use, because the 4 spd auto tends to want to shift right in the middle of a turn from a stop.
They were literally a plug and play affair in my 2010 Forester XT (since they came as an option for the Japanese version), and honestly they make driving more fun. Both hands on the wheel just feels better to me. I have the “manumatic” option if I want it, but hardly ever use it anymore.
I came to appreciate the paddle shifters on my car. It’s not something I would look for in a car, but it’s not something I would avoid either. It helps that Mitsubishi overachieves by using high-quality magnesium paddles; it also helps that my transmission has six actual gears.
Tesla doesn’t seem to want to make cars for human drivers or people who like cars. I think the performance outcomes are accidental byproducts of “stats go brrr” for the buyer who just wants “the most bestest at” tool so they can…I dunno, flex on their neighbors when they’re not letting FSD chauffeur them down 101 to their Mountain View cubicle.
I presume that when this company folds in a year or two that these no longer work or at least customization goes away?
Or Tesla pushes a firmware update out that patches whatever exploit this doohickey uses.
They vet the firmware to make sure it’s compatible.
I’m not affiliated, just a Tesla owner who looked into some of their products.
This company is pretty well established. They’ve been tweaking Teslas for a while.
There is a particular intersection that I drive though regularly that would make indicator buttons absolutely infuriating. Simply put, the indicator stalk is always in the same place, regardless of what my steering wheel is doing. And yeah, when track driving, I keep my hands at 3 and 9 on the wheel at all times, but in the real world one has to turn the wheel farther than that. Then your buttons are upside down or sideways and not at your fingertips. I suppose one could get used to having buttons, but that begs the question: why should you even have to, when probably 99% of all cars made for the past 50 years or so use the exact same, standardized design, that every person whose ever driven a car can immediately use with no learning curve.
At first I was like “Wow, it’s impressive that the Tesla software architecture allows this. It would be cool if everyone allowed physical customization of their interior this way.”
Then I read about the need to tear apart the interior to install a module that allows this to happen, and the fact that the stalk needs batteries, and I was significantly less impressed.
Welcome to 2025 when there are a lot of things that feel like jokes, but aren’t.
These better be on the shelf in Pep Boys next to the stick-on chrome, stick-on door guards and stick-on wind deflectors.
While there’s no way I would take any automotive ergonomics advice from Jeff of Jeff’s Tutorials given that the Tesla he demonstrates on has a yoke, at least apart-Heidi didn’t order the Highland update team to provide a single button with a toggle switch to change from left signal to right.
Turn signal buttons on my Harley were fine, they made sense there. On a car it’s much harder to use buttons on a moving wheel than swipe a stalk as your hand passes.
Man, only 13 comments in and people are already hating on tesla owners and the CEO. From an article about friggin turn signal stalks! There’s seriously another site you guys should check out.
When you are as outspoken and public facing as Musk, it is expected that anything associated with him will draw the same level of response.
Yeah right? I don’t see Bara or Farley bribing politicians.
I think you meant owning politicians. Bribery is such a negative word, whereas ownership, that’s downright capitalistic!
From your first comment it sounds like you have more of a problem with the owners. I don’t own one personally but if I were in the market for an electric car, which I’m not, I would probably go with a tesla. Seriously though, this is an automotive website. Let’s try to keep it that way. Again, like I said if you want to talk politics with the guise of talking about cars there’s another website you can check out.
Every car has stereotypical bad owners that gravitate to them. While 80% may just be normal people and not be that type, the loud minority are the ones that give it the bad image. There are a LOT of Teslas where I live and while most are fine, there is a group who are incredibly obnoxious and drive like they suffer from a serious case of main character syndrome. That applies to the internet as well, most people who bring up that they are a Tesla owner in their comment/post are doing it as an argument point or to brag, increasing the likelihood they are in that unpleasant minority of unpleasant owners. Sure, there is more leeway to be given on an automotive site since it is more relevant to the topics but I am referring to things as a whole versus targeted here specifically.
If you find yourself in a situation where a Tesla owner is disagreeing with you, than that should strengthen your case honestly. They aren’t known for their decision making or reasoning skills.
I tried the buttons when I test drove the new Model 3 before buying my Y Performance last year. I didn’t mind the buttons, would have been easy to get used to. The stalk for the Y I have, horrible. The look and feel are fine, it just doesn’t respond the same way to inputs that every other stalk in my past driving life has. It is still odd to me now, 6 months and nearly 13k miles later.
I think you mixed up the B and P keys when creating your username, based on your vehicle choice..(mostly kidding)
Damn. 13k in 6 months! You do some driving. That’s almost 2 years for me.
What is absurd is people are still buying Teslas.
I struggled to find fault with them and test drove every competitor, seriously 5-6 different models and around 6 months of test driving models a few times each. Tesla just nails the charging infrastructure (needed even if I only use it a few times a year) and the tech they have just plain works vs the others I drove. The car is also more efficient and lighter, more fun to drive and seemingly smaller on the outside but larger on the inside vs others I compared against. It has been great to own.
What competitors did you test drive?
My wife mentioned getting a used Model 3 from Hertz. I will only do that if I’m allowed to put “We bought it used!” in large letters on the bumpers.
“S3XY Stalks”
Jesus Christ it’s like an I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER meme became sentient and is somehow running our country. Dumbest fucker in the world somehow given the power to ruin millions of lives. This is the dumbest timeline.
I will say the standard Japanese system seems most ergonomical and easy overall. Lamps on turn stalk, separate wiper stalk opposite. I can deal with either Ford or Chrysler system (wipers on turn signal or separate stalk) with remote headlamp switch. I loathe the ’80’s GM multistalk with integrated cruise control. I love the older Toyota cruise control dongle better than wheel buttons.
I kind of like having lights be a separate knob on the dash, either push/pull like my Chevy or turn, like old Volvos, but any physical control is better than none
The worst is separate wiper control! My ’78 Ford had the wipers controlled by a knob you could never find when you needed it.
TBF to GM, the cruise control controls have been moving to the steering thumb buttons for a while. Just turns, wipers and high beams now.
Ford had the thumb buttons in the ’70s. I still think the Toyota dongle is perfect, once you know how it works it requires no sight to use.
Agreed; it was as if some GM manager said, “how much crap can we fit onto a single stalk” and the engineers accepted the assignment. Never mind how chintzy the things felt to operate.
It was the cruise control on my W-body that gave me fits. WHY crammed into such a small space???
Counterpoint: the GM multi-stalk makes it easy to turn on cruise or wipers by feel without diverting your eyes from the road.
I always felt it was too much having cruise and wipers on the same device.
See Toyota dongle. Perfection.
Nothing says “this graphic was made by Jason Torchinsky” quite like a vintage VW dash (is that a Type 3?) with a Mk7 non-GTI steering wheel (but not an uber-base MQB car either, as this has steering wheel controls) with a Gordon-Keeble emblem in the center. Truly incredible, 10/10 no notes.
Also, all opinions on vehicle ergonomics can be immediately discarded should they be from a person that choses a Yoke wheel in their Model S or X. Anyone who thinks that sort of tiller is even remotely acceptable is not allowed anywhere near my turn signal stalks.
What a great idea; I’m going to start making side mirrors for the Honda e!
Didn’t Tesla reverse course on the new model 3 and the stalks are back? It feels like hopefully the trends are reversing and physical controls for car functions are returning. The fever dream of “everybody be like Tesla” subsiding.
They reversed course for the Model Y refresh and are keeping them there, but AFAIK the updated Model 3 will continue to not have them, which is obviously absurd.
Ah that was it, thanks. So inconsistency in product options, I guess you can’t lower the model 3 price if you gotta install those $10 wiper stalks..that you’re already making for the other models….
I’m not even sure that’s entirely it. I’m sure it was initially a cost cutting and “brand” ideals type thing, but the Model Y inclusion was due to the backlash. The reality is even companies like Tesla that are more vertically integrated and flexible with vehicle changes, something like reintroducing turn signals will take a long time. Don’t be shocked if we see them return to the Model 3 by the 2027 Model year though. I’m sure they’re being triaged back in, but even quick changes are expensive and take time.