It's amazing that china might be the one stepping up and regulating sanity by returning good turn signals and gear selectors:
https://www.notateslaapp.com//news/3593/tesla-likely-to-make...
(on some models tesla has turn signals as buttons on the wheel/yoke and gear selection on the ...touchscreen... yikes)
Add in the fact that car will automatically put the car in the right "gear" 80% of the time based on environment (curbs, walls, etc.), it's even less important how the gear selected. Getting into other cars, I'm struck by how much space in the center console is wasted by this vestige of an actual manual gear shifter. Also the silly paddles on the steering wheel.
- anything involving a quick 3-point turn. Or making a u-turn and not making it and having to back up a bit. (don't know if the car can guess right)
- creeping out to make a turn when poor visibility and having to quickly back up out of the way of something. (the car cannot guess here)
This stuff requires quick maneuvers and situational awareness. With a stalk this is all intuitively done keeping your eyes on the road and setting the direction. looking at a touchscreen or relying on the UI guess in the middle of all this is bad news.