If you want to make a car look futuristic, one of the easiest things you can do is to replace the steering wheel with a yoke instead. However, on the road where normal cars drive, they’re not as cool as they might look. Things quickly become unwieldy, as demonstrated in this video of the new Tesla Model S from Motor Trend editor Christian Seabaugh.
The video shows how much fumbling is required to navigate a typical parking situation with the yoke in place of a typical steering wheel. Like most yoke designs, the center of the rotation doesn’t line up with the center of the yoke, leaving the driver to wrestle with an angry rectangle as they execute a multi-point turn in the parking lot. “It’s not like it’s hard to do, but it’s just so awkward,” says Seabaugh in the video, who quickly grows frustrated before stating “there’s a reason that they’re fucking circles.”
The problem is further compounded by Tesla’s new touchscreen shifter controls which are used to switch the vehicle between park, forward, and reverse drive. Instead of a physical shifter, drivers must swipe at the large central touchscreen that provides no tactile feedback in the interaction. The combination of a lumpy steering oblong and the swipe-to-shift controls makes parking seem like an absolute headache to deal with on a daily basis. In the video, Seabaugh awkwardly palms the tiller around and contorts his arms to get the job done, elbows akimbo, while pawing at the touchscreen to change gear. It looks excruciating.
There are also safety implications, too. In situations where the driver must deal with high angles of steering lock, the yoke’s irregular shape can make steering difficult. Situations such as a loss of control in icy conditions could be much harder to manage with a yoke instead of a round wheel. A traditional round wheel, by comparison, is much easier to grip no matter the steering angle.