Tesla Model 3 is a remarkable global vehicle, over its six-year birth span, it’s become one of the most popular cars in the world. And in early beginning Q1 this year, the much-anticipated 2024 Model 3 Highland was officially unveiled. With its numerous innovative technological configuration and excellent performance, it has once again attracted widespread attention in the market.
In terms of appearance, the 2024 refreshed Model 3 presents a sharper and more dynamic stance. The front part of the car has been redesigned, showing simpler and smoother lines, giving people a strong visual impact.The flat headlight set complements the blackened interior structure, demonstrating Tesla's ultimate pursuit of details. At the same time, the simplified processing of the trapezoidal lower grille and front bumper further enhances the sense of hierarchy and sportiness of the vehicle.
Internally, the innovations of the refreshed Model 3 are particularly prominent. Its novel screen-based gear shift design eliminates the traditional gear shift mechanism, making the center console look more concise and technological. All interactive operations are concentrated on the touchscreen and steering wheel. The new steering wheel style and the surrounding atmosphere light strip create a more technological and fashionable atmosphere in the car. Despite the removal of the wood grain panel, the overall design still meets the aesthetically needs of current consumers.
In addition to the above advantages, the refreshed Model 3 has also been comprehensively upgraded in its safety performance. The vehicle structure is more robust and equipped with a number of active safety technologies, such as collision warning and automatic emergency braking, etc., providing a more comprehensive protection for drivers and passengers. Especially when turning corners.
Why Veekys Brought Physical Stalks Back Into Tesla 2024 Model 3 Highland?
As one of the first owners of the 2024 Model 3 Refresh, I couldn't wait to experience all the improvements after receiving the vehicle. Overall, it is indeed very impressive. However, the upgrade involved replacing the gear shift and turn signal indicator stalks with screen shifting and steering wheel button-triggered arrow indicator, which definitely requires time for even a 15 years experienced driver like me to adapt to. It becomes quite challenging and risky, especially when turning corners or driving in roundabouts and trying to properly press the indicator buttons without having the steering wheel return to its original position. Drivers have to take eyes off the road to find the small and inverted turn signal button. And if you take some time, you might finally get used to it, but it is just not a enjoyable driving experience. Initially I even doubted whether my age limited my adaptability until I saw other Tesla enthusiasts on Reddit sharing similar control confusions and safety concerns.
Below we listed the most representative voices/feedbacks, mainly from people who live in country/city with lots of roundabouts and turns.
Veekys is committed to attentively listen to users’ voices, keep innovating and strive for excellent solutions. Inspired by above users’ voices and their shared passion, driven by a desire to enhance the Tesla driving experience for owner worldwide, we made a bold decision, bring those physical stalks back!
Our goal was to restore the removed turn signal and gear shift stalks on the 2024 Tesla Model 3, as well as on Model S/X.
Yes, it sounds crazy, but that's exactly what we intended to do. To achieve this goal, we needed to evaluate two aspects: designing the two stalks, and generate commands from the stalks’ actions that can be received by the vehicle.
Model Acquisition and Design: We obtained an old Model Y stalk for design reference. We easily purchased a well-maintained used part from the second-hand market. Then it needs to be disassembled into individual parts and scanned into a computer using a 3D scanning device as raw data for design reference. After obtaining the model, we spent four months modifying and verifying the design.
Signal Logic and Encryption: During this period, we had no free time because there was another extremely important matter that needed to be figured out - the logic and encryption methods of Tesla's lever signals. Otherwise, even if we successfully installed the lever on the side of the steering wheel, we wouldn't be able to control the vehicle's systems to achieve the functionality we desired. In less than 3000 kilometers, both inside and outside of our beloved car transformed into what you see below. It's a bit heartbreaking!
After nearly a week of disassembly and measurement, we have identified the signal transmission interface. Several structural positions in the vehicle could be used, but we chose Tesla's debugging interface, ensuring no invasive modifications and maintaining vehicle safety. After finding it, we realized that there was actually no need to dismantle so many things, but of course, this is hindsight. Only through extensive measurement and analysis can we arrive at the final optimal choice.
Ultimately, the best location was very easy to find—near the right triangular panel, where Tesla's diagnostic monitoring interface is hidden.
CAN Data Analysis and Decryption: Next, we needed to record, analyze, and decrypt the CAN data from the interface. This is a highly specialized and time-consuming task. We used Vector's protocol analysis tools and CANalyzer, with our skilled technicians working diligently.
This data analysis and decryption took much longer to crack than we expected, mainly for the following reasons:
1.Tesla's high intelligence level, leading to a data volume 8 to 10 times that of ordinary vehicles, exponentially increasing analysis time.
2.Dynamic encryption in Tesla's data, making decryption a significant challenge without keys or encryption algorithms. This required extensive data recording, analysis, hypothesis, verification, and re-verification.
We initially planned to complete this in 2 to 3 months but took nearly 7 months to record and decrypt the necessary data, followed by 2 more months of rigorous validation testing. Ultimately, we recorded 200GB of data, filling the entire hard drive.
Prototype Development: After a year of design verification, we finally produced a prototype by the end of 2023, using 3D printing for the model, assembling all components, including buttons, casing, and PCB.
Aspirations are beautiful, but the initial prototypes always come with various issues.
1.The fitness of the shell wasn't very good, with gaps between different components, affecting aesthetics.
2.The stalk has poor tactile feedbacks and there’s a certain probability of it getting stuck.
3.There’s a slight difference in the spay color of the appearance compared to the vehicle.
4.There are some instability issues with signal processing.
My GOD! There are so many different situations. But we resolved them one by one eventually. For the shell fitness issue, we repeatedly modified the details of the shell connection points, especially the clasp positions, adjusting by 0.1 mm increments.
The poor tactile lever was due inadequate mold precision and smoothness of the contact surface, as well as issues with lubricating oil selection. To address this, high-precision CNC machines will be used for machining, and the lubricating oil will undergo repeated adjustments.
After a painful process of continuous modification, validation, and re-validation over four months, we finally produced a gear shift and turn signal stalk that could be installed and run on the vehicle.
Below is the process of real vehicle testing (video of the 2021 Tesla Model S and Model X testing).
From the videos, you can see that to verify the flexibility of the stalks and their compatibility with the vehicle, we deliberately switch all lever positions and all function options at a very fast speed repeatedly. This continues until we observe no mis-operations or unresponsive situations during a week of continuous testing and validation.
Then our prototype was successfully validated and installed in the car!