My friend, Marge, who I got to take delivery of her Tesla Model S Plaid at Tesla’s Plaid delivery event last June, has beautifully demonstrated just how to use the yoke steering. Her video was a brilliant response to the recent review by Consumer Reports whose test drivers had troubles using the yoke wheel over a traditional round steering wheel.
Maneuvering the @Tesla yoke is not rocket science, though it probably took rocket science to develop Plaid@elonmusk @CodingMark @FredHassen @StargazerPlaid @jayleno @omarsultan @MKBHD #Tesla #PlaidModelS pic.twitter.com/9Go3ZwpxrL
— Marge (@teslamarge) September 15, 2021
In her demonstration, Marge also successfully showed the world how to use the turn signals and other buttons on the yoke. Her moves were fluid, graceful, and allowed for her to not be distracted by stalks or the bulk of a round wheel preventing her from viewing the display.
I spoke with Marge on the phone and she described the driving experience with the yoke.
“In the brief time I’ve had the privilege to experience it so far, the process of learning to operate the yoke is similar to learning to play an instrument. You have an array of buttons or keys that you learn how to use with practice. As you are operating the buttons/keys, you are looking at the road and what’s around you the same way you read music or follow the instructions of the music conductor.”
The yoke isn’t for everyone, however, and those having trouble adjusting to it are vocal in their criticisms. The folks over at Consumer Reports and Edmunds tout the difficulty of using a yoke as their main concerns. Edmunds called it a joke and CR had issues with maneuvering it. The latter also claimed that it had a slippery feel to the wheel and was really upset that there was no turn signal stalk. Edmunds was also upset that the Tesla Model S Plaid was too fast.
Edmunds may have had a point there since the Plaid recently set a new world record at Nürburgring. The car is insanely fast.