Yahoo Autos Tesla Touchscreens Could Get Physical Buttons Thanks to the Aftermarket
The Tesla Model 3 and Model Y might soon have the option of physical buttons and knobs to give owners tactile control over certain functions buried in the touchscreen. Rather than furiously tap and slide on climate settings or other features that have no business behind a screen, Tesla owners can look forward to an aftermarket accessory called the Ctrl-Bar that adds actual buttons to their screens. That is, if the crowdfunded input device can make it to production.
The Ctrl-Bar promises to easily add a strip of physical buttons to the bottom of the infotainment display of the Tesla Model 3 and Y, putting a host of features at your fingertips. OK, so a touchscreen does the same thing, but it’s just not as satisfying. Greenmission made the Ctrl-Bar to get around that in the Model 3 and Y, all while making sure installing the device is easy and straightforward.
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The Ctrl-Bar has two knobs, or dials, as well as four programmable buttons that can be assigned to actions that can turn on the heated seats, toggle defrost mode and dog mode among many others. You could open trunks, frunks, maybe even gloveboxes with the buttons. Finally!
The bar appears to stick to the screen with adhesives and is powered via USB cable, which the makers claim is discreet or “hidden.” The Ctrl-Bar connects to Tesla EVs by using a phone as a middleman, which means your phone must be connected through Wi-Fi or a cellular connection. That seems odd, but given the integration these EVs have with smartphones via the Tesla app, it’s not as weird as it sounds.
