By now, all the Tesla fans who frequent this site have seen the pictures of the steering yoke on the refreshed Model S. It’s similar in shape to the steering yokes on airplanes. Of course, nobody thinks that the refreshed Model S can fly so there’s no indication that pushing forward on the Model S yoke will make the nose of the Tesla point downward or that pulling back on the yoke will make the nose of the Tesla point upward. That sort of thing is strictly for airplanes.
There’s a reason that steering wheels on cars are round, or nearly round. That reason is that in tight spaces, you sometimes need to turn the wheel more than 180 degrees in order to make the front wheels get all the way to the left or to the right. This is a leftover from when cars sometimes came without power steering. For those of you old enough to remember that long ago time, parking without power steering was a bit more work than we wanted to do. There was more mechanical advantage, and thus less force required, to turn the wheel all the way to the stop if the amount you had to turn the wheel was more than 180 degrees. In order to do that, you had to go hand over hand, and it was helpful if the rim of the steering wheel was pretty much in the same place no matter where the front wheels of the car was facing because when you’re looking out the rear window of the car, you can’t keep track of where the rim of the steering wheel happens to be.
So I started thinking about how Tesla could deal with issues like this now that they’re putting the yoke steering on the Model S. I’d have dropped this essay a week ago if I’d been able to figure it out, but I was unable. Today, I decided to consult the Oracle of YouTube to get an answer. The trouble with consulting YouTube is that some of the people who put up videos aren’t any smarter than I am. I checked out a few of those videos. One had a guy who put a model of a yoke on his regular steering wheel and tried to steer with just that part of the wheel. He could, but it didn’t tell me anything about what the engineers at Tesla were probably thinking. Another guy actually used a hacksaw on his steering wheel to make it into a yoke. He could steer, but that was also not enlightening. Finally, I found a YouTube video that gave a theory that I could get behind.
To me, a steering yoke makes sense only if you don’t need to turn the yoke any more than ninety degrees in either direction, just the way it is in an airplane. That way, there’s no hand-over-hand movement when you’re not looking at the steering wheel. I was stumped by this because steering would be too quick at highway speeds. There are already collisions when someone jerks the steering wheel too hard. These would be more frequent if the steering was so sensitive to slight movements.
The video gives the answer. What you don’t see in the pictures of the yoke steering are pictures of the steering mechanism. Now remember, the person who made this video is theorizing. I’m writing about the video because I believe his theory is correct. The person who made the video goes by the moniker, TenXchange.
Here’s the theory. Tesla is eliminating the traditional rack and pinion steering in which the steering wheel is physically connected to the steering mechanism by a stiff rod. Instead, the steering yoke is electrically connected to the steering mechanism, a steer-by-wire system. That’s helpful for two reasons.
First, there can be a variable steering ratio. When you’re going fast, on the highway, steering the car is less sensitive so a quick jerk on the wheel will make your car point in the direction you want to go, but it won’t send the car into an uncontrolled skid. When you’re going slow, and parking the car, you won’t need to turn the yoke very far to get the wheels in the direction you want them to go, and you won’t need all that hand-over-hand motion of the steering wheel to get the car parked. In between, on city streets when you’re not going as fast, the steering ratio can be more sensitive than on the highway but less sensitive than when parking.
The second reason for having steer-by-wire according to TenXchange is that there will come a time when your Tesla with FSD will actually be autonomous. You may want to send your car out to work as a taxi for you while you stay home and do something else, or you might just want your car to be your chauffeur while you do something else besides driving. I have to say that even though I paid for FSD when I bought my Tesla a year or so ago, I’ll be surprised if this happens in my lifetime. Anyway, if actual FSD does come to pass, and if my car is a much safer driver than most human beings, then I wouldn’t want a human being to be able to take over the driving by just turning the steering wheel or tapping the brake. That could cause an accident.
My car won’t ever have steer by wire or brake by wire since it doesn’t have those things now, and I doubt that Elon Musk is going to recall half a million Teslas with FSD in order to convert them to steer-by-wire and brake-by-wire. But the newer cars, the ones with yoke steering, may well have those features.
Now that the Model Y Juniper refresh has officially been announced in the Asia-Pacific markets, the initial vehicles from Giga Shanghai are starting to make their way to showrooms throughout the region.
And that means lots of new pictures. Let’s take a look at some of the latest close-up shots of the 2025 Model Y.
Light Bar Close-Up
Our first up-close look at the new front end of the new Model Y. This car is likely en route to a showroom prior to the start of Tesla’s big sales push for the Chinese Lunar New Year, and this is one of the closest and cleanest shots of the new front end.
The sharp new front of the Juniper
@DriveGreen80167 on X
The new front light bar is very visible, even when it’s off. It’s more than a thin strip of lights. The headlights are located directly below the light bar at either end. You can also see the new squared-away sharp lines - starting from the lightbar gaps and going up the hood. The new design looks far more aggressive and sharp when viewed at this angle.
Wheels
And the new wheels are pretty interesting, too - especially since they don’t seem to have full aero covers on them. We’re wondering if Tesla intends to introduce aero covers for these wheels later - or if they’ll just stay uncovered. They look pretty good - but the black hubcap in the center stands out against the rest of the wheel. Time will tell whether the clean black finish holds up with use.
We're a big fan of these new fan-blade wheels
@DriveGreen80167 on X
Either way, they’re pretty good looking - but we’d prefer to see them in an all black finish - similar to the Shadow Gemini’s that are currently available. Hopefully, once the Model Y refresh arrives in North America and Europe, that option will be available in addition to the Crossflow wheels.
Video
One of the first videos showing off some of the new Model Y features.
The refreshed Model Y also brings a ton of changes to the interior. In addition to the Launch Edition exclusive dash, we also get a good shot of the new ventilated seats, as well as the return of the turn signal stalk.
The best interior shot we've seen so far
@DriveGreen80167 on X
The new Model Y also has the same new center console as the Model 3 Highland - with the two-part slider. For now, it seems like the Launch Edition will include rubber pedal covers - nothing fancy like the metallic ones available on the Performance variants yet.
Rear End Close-Up
On the rear end of the vehicle, we get a close-up view of the new reflective light bar. Tesla claims this is an industry-first, and it does look very cool. The actual light is located on the inside edge of the piece that overhangs the reflective portion. The reflective portion itself is painted to match the vehicle - and isn’t a glossy surface, but rather matte.
Gotta love that new reflective light bar
@DriveGreen80167 on X
In the next image, we can also see that the rear camera is mounted in a new location. It doesn’t have the camera lip that the 2024 Model Y has been shipping with, as the camera is now mounted on the very edge of the new raised bumper. This also means the camera is much higher up than it previously was. This location change likely means that the new Y will require some additional training time for both FSD and Actually Smart Summon, as well as the new front bumper camera.
This is going to be an interesting change - we’re not sure how this new camera location will handle snow, rain, and road muck, but this is likely the main reason for it being moved up and away from the road.
The updated camera positioning is noticeably higher
@zhongwen2005 on X
We’re excited to see the new Model Y in person. This refresh has been a long time coming and there are many details that are still waiting to be discovered.
Customer deliveries are supposed to begin in just a couple of months - May at the earliest - in the Asia-Pacific region. We’re hoping to see the refresh arrive in Europe and North America by summertime and then see the launch of the Performance variant shortly thereafter.
A rendering of what the Tesla app may look like with the Tesla Diner added
Not a Tesla App
Tesla has been planning to create its own drive-in diner with Superchargers since at least 2022, when it filed paperwork for the one-of-kind supercharger location. In 2023, Tesla’s then Senior Director of Charging Infrastructure, Rebecca Tinucci, said during a presentation that you "can't forget to do cool s***."
The slide presentation showed off an illustration of a retro-looking Tesla Diner restaurant with a rooftop patio and an old-school drive-in movie screen behind it. People could be seen lining up to get inside, hinting that whatever the restaurant serves is worth the wait.
Since then, Tesla has begun and practically completed the construction of its Tesla Diner project. The location includes two 45-foot outdoor LED screens that will play short films, and it’ll also serve food up to 77 guests while their vehicle is being charged.
As the completion of the diner approaches, Tesla has now revealed several other bits of information in the latest Tesla app update. Thanks to a decompile by Tesla app iOS, we see that Tesla’s diner will closely tie in with the Tesla app itself.
Integrated With the Tesla App
Several phrases were found in Tesla’s latest app update, which includes things like show_diner, Diner Home Screen, profile_settings_diner_description, and View menu & amenities. It sounds like you’ll be able to view the diner’s menu directly from the Tesla app, but if we had to guess, there will be a lot more to it than that.
Following Tesla’s seamless integration with Superchargers, we expect the diner experience to be similar. You may soon be able to order food directly from the app and have it charged automatically to your card on file, letting you skip the payment portion completely.
Since Tesla knows which Supercharger stall you’re connected to, we also expect Tesla to take full advantage of this and bring the food directly to your vehicle without you needing to specify your location. So imagine this, you’ll pull up to a Supercharger and plug it in.
Tesla Diner UI
An image was also found in the app update that hints at where the Tesla Diner options will be located. The image found is the same ratio and similar size to other images found in the main menu of the Tesla app. In addition, the phrase “profile_settings_diner_description” could be the string used for the text that will show up in this menu. Since this menu is used to guide users to Tesla pillars such as products, charging, referrals and more, we expect the diner menu to only show up if you’re geographically near the Tesla diner.
What’s round and shiny but still not yet open? Tesla diner
Supercharger stalls, landscaping, and more are already in place at the Tesla Diner. The fact that Tesla is now including code related to the diner in the Tesla app indicates that Tesla may be ready to open up the diner to the public very soon.
For now, the location remains quiet, but it will soon become a 24-hour diner with a steady flow of traffic as Tesla owners visit to enjoy a unique charging and dining experience.
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