Tesla Model 3: What will the spaceship-like steering wheel of the Model 3 look like?

Fred Lambert | Aug 22 2016 - 4:21 pm PT

The final design of the Tesla Model 3 is “pencil down” for over a month now and we all want to know what is different from the prototypes unveiled earlier this year. CEO Elon Musk mentioned some refining of the exterior design and a lot of reservation holders are anxious to know what is the “fix” for the trunk opening.

But what I’m personally most excited about is the interior. Tesla carefully made sure that any promotional picture or third-party photoshoot would not feature the interior of the prototypes, presumably because it will be nothing like the production version.

While everyone is focused on the horizontal center touchscreen and speculating about a potential heads-up display, which I admit is likely, I am most interested in the steering wheel.

The one on the prototype was unfinished-looking and Musk confirmed that it’s not “the real steering system“. He referred to it as a “system” and not a “wheel” on a few occasions, which is very interesting.

First off, there will be manual controls in the Model 3 even if it features an advanced or fully autonomous driving system. The “steering system” might not be a traditional “steering wheel”, but there’s just no way Tesla believes it can legally ship a product next year without it featuring actual manual controls.

Now what will this non-traditional steering wheel of the Model 3 look like?

Musk didn’t say what it will look like, but he did say what it will feel like:

@HBL_Cosmin Wait until you see the real steering controls and system for the 3. It feels like a spaceship.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2016

That’s not a very helpful clue, but we will take it.

Now we also get a potential hint from the design sketches Tesla released:

It does look like a 3/4 steering-wheel, but that’s not really spaceship-like so why not take a look at some of the most “out there” steering system concepts that have recently come out and see if it can help us envision what the Model 3 interior will look like.

Nissan’s IDS concept

Nissan’s all-electric and autonomous concept was unveiled by the Japanese automaker last year and it features one of the coolest interior transition from manual to automatic steering I have ever seen.

LeEco’s LeSee concept

LeEco, the Chinese tech giant whose founder is backing Faraday Future, has its own electric vehicle effort which takes the form of the all-electric and autonomous LeSee unveiled earlier this year. It also features a pretty cool manual to automatic steering transition.

The company is actually moving ahead to manufacturing the car and recently announced an important factory to bring the vehicle to production in volumes.