Tesla’s decision to ditch the regular round steering wheel for a Yoke butterfly design on the Model S Plaid was and still is a controversial move. However, this week we learned one Model S Plaid owner took the wheel himself and replaced it with a regular round steering and stalk system from a Model 3.
While the ‘Yoke’ butterfly steering system is unique, there’s also no drive stalk gear shift for selecting the drive mode. It’s a unique approach, one that Tesla is still trying to figure out with a steer-by-wire or progressive steering system. In the meantime, those who ordered a Model S Plaid are getting one without a traditional steering wheel.
However, a man named Ryan Huber took it upon himself to completely replace this system with something more usable. A long thread over on Reddit has more details, and it’s pretty impressive. Huber replaced the entire Yoke with a round steering wheel from a Model 3, including the stalk for improved controls. Then, he had to hack the software and rewrite some code to make it all work — and it works beautifully.
According to Electrek, Ryan Huber said everything appears to work great. He managed to get the steering wheel, stalk, controls, and even the scroll wheels on the steering wheel all working as expected. Initially, the plan was to swap it and try things out for fun, but now Huber says he isn’t going back to the Yoke anytime soon.
For those wondering, Tesla’s Elon Musk confirmed the company doesn’t plan to offer a regular steering wheel as an option with or without stalks, which means we can expect more 3rd party options or retrofits similar to this shortly.
Interested Model S Plaid owners can see his extensive work on Github, but just know it’s not for the faint of heart. Now, imagine paying $130k for a car and then doing all this work to make it feel normal.
via Electrek
