“What is Plaid?”
Tesla Model S Plaid has made some bold breakthroughs that may eliminate the need for manual gear switching.
What exactly is Plaid?
How does the automatic gear switching work?
Why does Tesla, in the midst of controversy, persist in introducing what seems to be a “dangerous” feature?
“What is Plaid?”
We all know that the Model S Plaid is equipped with three high-performance electric motors, with a zero-to-60 time of only 2.1 seconds. The electrified takedown of the competition leaves all gasoline cars in the dust. What exactly does Plaid mean?
If you open a translator and input “PLAID,” you get this result…a grid pattern?
Clearly, you can hardly find any grid elements on the Model S Plaid. After some research, we finally found the correct answer. This is actually Elon Musk’s full-of-feeling creation, or you can say he is a juvenile.
On April 7, 2016, just one week after the release of Model 3, Elon tweeted “The only thing beyond ludicrous is plaid.” That means the only thing that can surpass Ludicrous is Plaid. Wait, what’s Ludicrous?
A seemingly nonsensical sentence actually has some background. Ludicrous and Plaid are two acceleration modes of the spaceship in the 1987 sci-fi movie “Spaceballs.”
In the new mode, Tesla Model S P100D reached zero-to-60 in 2.5 seconds in October 2016. In order to pay tribute to “Spaceballs,” Elon named this mode Ludicrous mode.
In the movie, Plaid mode is even faster than Ludicrous mode and is the ace in the hole of the spaceship. In short, you can understand these two modes as SPORT and SPORT+.When it comes to the appearance of the Model S Plaid, you will find that there is not much difference compared to the old version, but everything changes once you get into the car. While I was still in awe of the Yoke butterfly steering wheel, built-in game console, and 0-60 mph acceleration of 2.1 seconds, I almost missed the most important detail – there is no physical shift lever behind the steering wheel.
This means that Tesla has eliminated the physical shift lever, and the D and R gears you are familiar with will be decided by the vehicle itself. And this is the biggest update for the Model S.
“The Next Era of Human-Vehicle Interaction”
How to understand this title? According to the Model S Plaid user manual, when automatic shifting is activated, pressing the brake will cause the gear lever to automatically shift to either D or R based on the current trajectory of the vehicle and the Autopilot full-car sensors’ perception of the surrounding environment.
Tesla, which is already at the forefront, still dares to play such a trick? But if you think about it calmly, you will find that the system automatically judges and shifts for the user, which is in line with Tesla’s strategy of driving automation that has been continuously promoted over the past decade.
Looking back on the timeline, to complete the process of driving, we need to start the engine, release the parking brake, shift gears, and control acceleration, deceleration, and braking of the vehicle. Like many manufacturers, Tesla naturally did not have a clutch pedal and has long eliminated the ignition, turn-off keys, and mechanical handbrake. Like BMW and Nissan, Tesla has greatly simplified the vehicle’s acceleration, deceleration, and braking operations through the single-pedal mode.
On the Model S Plaid, Tesla finally wants to challenge the last and most difficult operation that humans execute when driving a car- “shifting gears”- through system automation.
Of course, this is not an easy task, so Tesla has also released a video tutorial for use, and on the automatic shifting startup page, through pop-up windows, it reminds users to “please make sure that the gear selected by the system meets your expectations before pressing the accelerator pedal.”
At the same time, on the leftmost side of the central infotainment display and at the bottom of the center console, Tesla provides sliding touch and physical key shifting as a backup.
To be honest, this cautious feeling is really not like Tesla’s usual style. Automatic shifting is actually the most challenging user driving habit, why does Tesla insist on promoting this logic? And why do we think that automatic shifting is the most important innovation on the Model S Plaid, putting aside Musk’s fantastic engineering technologies?
Because it represents the direction of the evolution of human-vehicle interaction technology and is also an important part of achieving L5 level fully autonomous driving. In April 2020, a netizen on Twitter suggested to Elon: Can you adjust the air conditioning airflow more easily on the main interface of the touchscreen without opening the air conditioning menu?
Elon replied that all inputs are wrong. When has automatic airflow mode ever gone wrong?## “In Conclusion”
Musk once said, “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” We see Tesla’s unwavering courage again in the automatic gear shift of the Model S Plaid. Of course, this is met with opposition.
Do you think Tesla is on the right path? From a different perspective, humans are unreliable, so any design that requires input from humans is flawed. Only automation is the correct choice. This shows his confidence in fully automating the automotive industry.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.