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Comment by projektfu | Hacker News Reader

As I understand it, Tesla also introduced a flight-yoke-style steering column. For people who own one, how is it working out and do you miss the wheel?

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Of course its horrible. Non-round steering wheels have been tried in concept cars since the 60s, and in more than a few production cars. They were all flops. Its up there will gullwing doors and automatic seatbelts: everyone knows they are possible, but clearly not wanted by the market. Despite this, every few years some designer tries again, most likely just after the last designer to pitch the idea retires.

https://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/reinventing-the-wheel-a-...

Another "good" steering wheel idea that has never become popular:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brodie_knob

Automatic seat belts were a legal requirement during the period after passive restraint regulations were passed and before air bags were practical.

They were not a requirement but a cheaper alternative to providing then-expensive airbags for automatic crash restraints. They are still a totally possible thing today. Nobody wants them.

I used to drive a cargo van at work that had a knob installed. I think it was the prolonged version of Renault Master, or something similar. It was actually great to have in that vehicle. The steering wheel was a lot more horizontal than in a normal car and much bigger. You wouldn’t use the knob at speed, but it was pretty indispensable when manoeuvring in tight places.

They are great, but only in vehicles with little "road feel". Road feel is forces experienced by the tires being transmitted up through the steering system. Say you hit a pothole, on a forklift you won't feel the wheel move. In a road car the steering while might jump a couple inches. If your arm/hand gets between the knob and something solid, that pothole just broke your thumb. Note that vehicles with brodie knobs rarely have solid arm rests.

Similarly, you can always spot an Auzzi because they steer while keeping thumbs outside of the steering wheel. In a country with a greater offroad tradition, kids are taught to keep thumbs outside the wheel in case it jumps.

That Brodie knob was disturbingly popular in the farming area I grew up in.

They seemed to multiply on their own and attach to steering wheels in pickups and even Saabs once they had colonized all the farm equipment.

My timeline was:

- would have selected wheel if it was an option on order

- ~4 days after delivery I was ambivalent to it

- ~2 weeks after delivery I preferred the yoke. Better visibility is nice.

That said, it would obviously be better if it was drive by wire with variable steering ratio. I’d probably pay some amount of money to switch to that.

You can have variable gear ratio with a gear rack too.

The Tesla yoke is awful. Toyota's version is much better since it used a variable ratio steering.

Tesla doesn’t use steer by wire for the yolk. It’s a regular steering wheel that’s just shaped different.

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