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Comment by whoitwas | Hacker News Reader

Windshield wipers, turn signal, heat? I feel like you're being dishonest or just accustomed to the hostility.

Or live somewhere with no weather and moderate temperatures so no need for any of them minus the turn signals. It’s my pet theory of why tesla’s auto wiper setting is so bad: they’re located somewhere without rain/snow or without varying amounts of rain/snow.

How many more excuses for an incomplete vehicle can we make for this company?

Lucid, Rivian, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Hyundai/Kia, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, and BMW all have design studios in California. They don’t all have this problem.

Do we really think that Tesla engineers and product managers have never seen rain or snow before? And if so what kind of lame excuse is that?

Aren’t some of Tesla’s biggest markets in cold weather climates? Places like Canada, New England, Scandinavia, Germany, and China (Beijing).

If they live in SoCal, 2/3 you listed might not be relevant. Paired with the battery degradation in cold climates…

I also don’t see much reason to buy a Tesla in 2025. There are better quality interiors for less money. The only thing Tesla has going for them is acceleration (if you pay!) and that is only relevant on a racetrack to push the car to it’s limits. Any normal EV is plenty quick for daily driving.

I've looked around (Europe), and there's nothing comparable at the price, except maybe Ioniq (but I didn't like the ergonomics, not saying it's objectively bad, just didn't fit me). Kia is way more expensive, Volkswagen is way more expensive at the same trim level, etc.

The BYD Seal has leaps and bounds better interior (and overall design) for roughly the same price as a Tesla.

> The only thing Tesla has going for them is acceleration (if you pay!)

Tesla base (no extra cost) acceleration is really good for anyone but speed junkies. I’ve had plenty of people (non-gear heads, non-speed junkies) white knuckle when I showed them what my model y is capable of.

The best part is that the acceleration is punchy all the way from 0 to about 105-110mph.

Other than that, I think the “religious wars” over Teslas give folks a warped view of reality. My comments to anyone who is thinking of getting one:

- Test drive one for yourself — this will be the most telling. Sometimes the showroom will let you borrow one over night. I knew I was getting mine after about 2 minutes of a test drive.

- Learn about the controls. Reading the manual helps when you get one… there are tons of cool, functional features.

- Try to go in with an open-but-critical mind. If you test drive with an overly negative disposition, you will almost certainly hate it. If you go in with an overly positive disposition, you will be blind to potential faults (e.g., for me, a yoke steering wheel that some models have is a no-go).

Note that refreshed model y is coming out in May or so, and it seems like the options they chose are fairly optimized.

Fully agree with you, model 3 driver myself.

Depending on the model year, it may have a stalk for turn signals. The same stalk has a button on the end to trigger the wipers (rarely needed because they're auto-sensing), and then wiper speed/mode can be adjusted with the dials on the steering wheel. Heat likewise has an 'auto' mode that does what you'd expect.

I have a Model Y and a Toyota Highlander (so not just accustomed to the hostility), and I prefer the hands-off approach in the Tesla. No reason to lie.

Wipers and turn signals are physical controls, I don’t find them much different than any other car.

I haven’t had to change heat/cool settings, I have it set to 70F and I haven’t had to adjust it.

See. I'm a hacker. I need to control things. I bought the car and want access to it.

There’s an API and even third party buttons.

I don’t think there’s any other modern car getting so much scrutiny. Ironically it is making it so much better than competitors they basically have no chance to catch up.

I think you're describing Tesla, I have no idea lacking context. You couldn't pay me to drive Tesla at this point.

> Windshield wipers, turn signal, heat?

On my model y and (I think) the new model y releasing in May:

1. Physical controls (stalk button and scroll wheel)

2. Stalk

3. Voice or top level of screen, although the auto-temp is good for me 99% of the time

The extent to which some folks fixate on these issues (at least for the model y) makes me think “religious war” or “neurodivergent”. It’s unnecessary fear-mongering.

From the article: "five most important functions – the volume, the heating on each side of the car, the fans and the hazard light".

Interesting choices. None of those are driving controls.

Presumably lights and wipers are on stalks. What about cruise control and related functions?

On Model Y:

> the volume, the heating on each side of the car, the fans and the hazard light".

Volume - scroll wheel

Heating - voice or screen, screen can be top screen for most functions (it’s editable for most-used functions)

Fans - same as heating, adjusting direction is top screen

Hazards - physical button near rear view mirror

> Presumably lights and wipers are on stalks.

Lights - stalk

Wipers - stalk and scroll wheel

> What about cruise control and related functions?

Autopilot (adaptive cruise control with lane assist) - right stalk and scroll wheel

Note: Article isn’t opening for me (hug of death), so I can’t refer to it.

They mentioned returning to physical buttons on the steering wheel as well. Past VW models (eg. Golf Mk7) have the cruise control button on the steering wheel. I read "five most important functions" as relative to those you would usually find on a centre console, not for overall driving.

Hazard lights absolutely are driving controls in some countries. I'd argue all countries.

If you must stop suddenly on a motorway, the hazard lights give additional warning to following vehicles. Switch them on as soon as possible. This is especially important in low visibility or at night.

Fans are also essential. You obviously don't live in a climate where the windscreen can fog up unexpectedly.

As I mentioned, hazards are a physical button. I don’t know what the issue is.

For the fans, usually they turn on automatically, but sometimes I have to turn them on by voice control.

As I have said before, these are all things that are trivially easy to handle without removing one’s hands from the wheel or eyes from the road. Some folks are just hellbent on tilting at this windmill for some reason.

Nah, the religious war people will complain about Elon, and maybe vague accusations of poor general quality (not untrue but no-one cars about the door gap, poor tolerances are only an issue in the drivetrain, and Tesla's drive train is inherently very good even if they don't have late 90s Toyota levels of quality control).

Many people just hate touch screen controls. Maybe that is kind of a religious war with car enthusiasts, like auto vs manual. But a lack physical controls are a huge deal for some people. It's like if a dev tool doesn't have a cli.

I'm not even a car enthusiast and I refuse to get a car without decent physical controls.

I've driven several Teslas and all were a terrible experience largely for this reason, basic controls are often absurdly clunky or hard to find. That's nice that they finally fixing some of these mistakes after years of complaints, but I'm very skeptical of a company that so often goes out of its way to create problems in order to be cheap and novel.

I've been hearing for years from Tesla fans about how perfectly amazing the cars are but I doubt they will suddenly be right after yet another redesign.

You are severely misinformed. Heat is a finger flick away. Rest are physical controls.

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