New Tesla Model S Plaid Owner Shares Yoke Driving Experience: “Embrace the yoke for what it is”

Omar Sultan, who took delivery of his new Tesla Model S Plaid a few days ago, has been sharing some of his experiences. In his latest video, he talks about his continued yoke adventures and how they are helping him to break old habits while building new muscle memory. For those who may not realize, the yoke is a new Tesla steering wheel design that was first seen during the Cybertruck reveal.

Second video: my continued yoke adventures. Less than 72 hrs and things are looking better–breaking old habits, building new muscle memory. Still a work in progress, tho 🤣 #PlaidLifehttps://t.co/jJzbE6Zg93

— Omar Sultan (@omarsultan) June 13, 2021

In his video, you can clearly see the details of Tesla’s new steering wheel design — with the logo right in the center. To me, the yoke wheel looks very similar to the Tesla logo — in shape, at least.

“Overall, I feel it’s getting easier and I have to think about it less,” Omar said in his video. He was referring to the switch from driving with a regular, round steering wheel to the new yoke design. He noted that one of the tricks is to stop trying round wheel steering techniques and to “embrace the yoke for what it is.”

As he drives up to a traffic circle, he effortlessly steers the yoke and navigates the circle. With a flick of his thumb, he turns on the turn signal. This was something many were wondering about. How could you use the turn signal without the stalk? Omar demonstrated this perfectly in the video.

In a parking lot, he performs a U-turn and then goes around in a circle and then heads home. He said it was still a work in process. Perhaps it’s the turn signal buttons being located on the wheel instead of on a stalk, or the simple design of the yoke itself, but I feel like I would actually have a better time learning to drive with the yoke than with a circular wheel.

Overall, Omar’s video shows how easy it is to use the yoke steering to drive a car. “I know yokes are not going to be for everyone, but I definitely think: give it a try,” Omar said just before his video ended.

Another thing I noticed in the video was how quiet the vehicle was. While in the test ride at the event, I honestly wasn’t paying attention to the sound. I was kind of caught up in the excitement.

AutoShift & The Clear UI

In his first video, Omar talked mostly about his new vehicle’s AutoShift feature and the clear UI.

A couple of quick videos–first is AutoShift–as I said, the clear UI won me over. I should add, if you don't want to use AutoShift (i.e. you need to pull you car up a bit) you can manually shift without needing to belt in–the shifter is on screen https://t.co/MNslOSv4Pi

— Omar Sultan (@omarsultan) June 13, 2021

To enable AutoShift, you need to have your seatbelt fastened, he noted. “Once you do that, you see it asks you to tap the brake pedal, the car comes on and it tells you what it’s going to do. It’s very clear — it’s going to back up.”

He panned the camera to the display and pointed out that the screen shifter was up. If the car was to choose to shift into an area that isn’t wise (like, into a building), you can easily take over and have it shift forward.

Another tweeter, @maddass1218, wanted to know what would happen when Omar was finished reversing or let off the pedal. Omar explained that if you let off the pedal, the car stops moving and the hold function kicks in. As to the answer to the first part of the question, Omar swiped on the screen shifter once he was done backing out and just headed on his drive.

If you let off the pedal, it stops moving and the hold function kicks in. In my case, once I am done backing out, I swipe on the screen shifter and head on my way. The screen shifter (and "park" button) are visible when the car is not moving.

— Omar Sultan (@omarsultan) June 13, 2021

Omar also has a gallery of photos of his new 2021 Tesla Model S Plaid. The tweet by me below includes a video of the display as well — it’s short and loud so enjoy.

https://twitter.com/JohnnaCrider1/status/1403455436641095686