Tesla Model S Plaid owner mods yoke steering wheel to add stalks

The most controversial feature of the new Model S interior design what the decision to include a yoke steering wheel, instead of the traditional round one.

Along with the unusual design, Tesla also removed the two stalks – one for shifting gears and the other for turn signals and wiper control. They instead went with haptic touch controls on the wheel itself, which have had their fair share of complaints from owners who have accidentally touched them while turning the wheel.

Despite some recent enhancements included in a free over-the-air (OTA) software update meant to improve the yoke user experience, one Model S Plaid owner took the matter into his own hands and added the stalks back to his car.

Stalks on yoke
Image via u/rawdigits /Reddit

Ryan Huber was able to get his hands on some stalks for the Model 3/Y. According to Huber, who posted his project to Reddit, while the electrical architecture of the Plaid is basically the same as the Model 3/Y, it was not a simple plug-and-play modification.

yoke stalk parts
Image via u/rawdigits /Reddit

Since the car didn’t recognize the stalks after they were installed, he had to write his own custom firmware. He reports that the left stalk turn signals now work, but the right stalk still requires some more programming to be fully functional.

He even included a video to prove that it actually works.

If you’re interested, you can follow his project on GitHub.

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