Electric car maker Tesla’s redesigned Model S and Model X will have automatic shifting between the park, reverse, neutral and drive (or PRND) by “guessing”.
There will be an option to change drive modes on the touchscreen, but CEO Elon Musk made the case for automatic shifting on Twitter late Wednesday night.
“No more stalks. Car guesses drive direction based on what obstacles it sees, context & nav map. You can override on touchscreen,” Musk tweeted. “After you drive without using a PRND stalk/stick for a few days, it gets very annoying to go back & use a shifter!” he added. An internal Tesla document obtained by Electrek expands, slightly, on what Musk means by “guesses”—the vehicle uses its Autopilot sensors to intelligently and automatically determine intended drive modes and select them, according to a report in The Verge.
The general idea behind the decision fits into the larger Silicon Valley ethos that Tesla subscribes to, though, of “eliminating friction.” The consequences of trying to automate PRND won’t be clear until people start taking deliveries of these new cars, which is supposed to happen in a matter of weeks, the report added.
The Tesla Model S was updated with a totally new interior on Wednesday, and the most radical change is the new yoke-style steering “wheel”.