Our Tesla Model 3's Turn Signals Aren't Just Dumb, They're Borderline Unsafe

• No surprise: After several months of owning our long-term Tesla Model 3, we all hate its turn signals.
• But more than just being annoying to use, we think this turn signal design is legitimately unsafe.
• Don't worry, we have a solution ...

One of the more, uh, controversial changes Tesla made when updating the Model 3 was moving the turn signals from a traditional stalk to buttons on the steering wheel. It's a questionable alteration; Tesla really just found a "solution" for a problem that didn't exist. And after several months of owning our long-term Model 3 Long Range, the feeling is unanimous: We hate this stupid setup. But beyond being just annoying, there's a genuine safety concern.

"There shouldn't have to be a learning curve to use a necessary safety feature in a car," writes associate director of vehicle testing Mike Schmidt.

"It's not just a matter of 'getting used to it,'" writes video manager Will Kaufman. "I spent the first 10 minutes of my commute trying to swipe a stalk that wasn't there, and then I spent the next hour regularly missing the button I was trying to push and having to look away from the road to make sure I hit it properly."

Senior manager of written content Brent Romans adds additional context: "I don't necessarily mind the concept of buttons; after all, I don't have problems using steering wheel buttons on most other cars for audio controls and the like. It's the execution of the design that is faulty. For two reasons: (1) The button surfaces are smooth, so you can't intuitively feel where your thumb is supposed to go, and (2) you have to press them just right, otherwise they won't activate the turn signal. Buttons like these are something that nobody was asking for."

Senior news editor Nick Yekikian sums it up best: "Having to regularly take your eyes off the road to use a turn signal, or the chance that you accidentally signal the wrong way because of the lack of tactility, or the chance that you miss the button entirely are all big safety concerns that are straight-up baked into the design of these indicators."

But it's not all bad (kinda)

"I'm on record as hating the turn signal buttons; they are objectively bad UX," Kaufman notes. "But there is something that has impressed me. The car is very good at telling whether you're just changing lanes or pulling into a turn lane. So far, it's turned off the signal with every lane change and successfully kept the signal on every time I've pulled into a turn lane. That's impressive."

And, no, it's not just Tesla

We aren't just trying to single out Tesla when talking about this bad design. Exotic carmakers like Ferrari and Lamborghini employ similarly stupid turn signal designs in their cars, with buttons or toggles on the steering wheel. Sure, these setups are a bit more tactile and generally less finicky. But they're still difficult to use while driving and an unnecessary bit of rethinking a design that didn't need to be rethought.

Of course, it's one thing to go out on a limb in a low-volume supercar. It's another to put this design into an incredibly high-volume, mass-market product.

Hey, Tesla: We have a solution

Senior consumer advice editor Ron Montoya proposes a solution for Tesla, free of charge (and with his limited Photoshop skills).

"What I did here is remove one turn signal from the left side of the wheel and place it on the other side, by itself, to prevent any accidental button presses," Montoya explains. "The left side is for the left signal. The right side is for the right signal. Genius!"

He adds, "The camera button is not a feature you'd often use, as it comes up on its own in reverse, and if you needed to manually do it, there should be an option in the center screen settings. I moved the wiper button in its place, then moved the microphone button to be a function of clicking the right roller button, as it was on our old Model Y."

Edmunds says

Could all of this be solved with a simple turn signal stalk? Yes. Is that the Tesla way? No.