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Coming from reviews by recent owners (of which, I will be one in about a month and a half) and my own test ride, the distraction level is actually very low. At

by timdorr 14y ago

Coming from reviews by recent owners (of which, I will be one in about a month and a half) and my own test ride, the distraction level is actually very low. At night, the display switches to a white on black interface with a dimmed screen brightness. Unless you are seriously distracted by any light in your car at night, this isn't going to get in your way. Really, the only way you can make it worse is by leaving a website up with animation on it or bright colors. In addition, any important info (navigation, media playback, range indication) is available on the dash display. The default interface is relatively static, so it's not going to try and distract you from driving. The most motion is going to come from the dash, and that's right below your eye line, provided you're actually keeping your eyes on the road. I saw this at the Beta event last year and even though I wasn't the driver, I ended up spending most of my time looking elsewhere besides the center display. The car and the driving experience is really front and center, not the touchscreen.

c1sc0 14y ago
"Really, the only way you can make it worse is by leaving a website up with animation on it or bright colors." ... Does this mean I can surf the web on it? Does this feature get disabled automatically once past a certain speed?
- 3825 14y ago
  I would like to think people are not stupid enough to multitask while driving. After all, we already have these things http://www.amazon.com/Notebook-Laptop-Mount-Truck-Holder/sim/B00197P468/2 http://www.amazon.com/Notebook-Laptop-Mount-Truck-Holder/sim... to mount laptops into cars and trucks. We should not have to do this kind of hand-holding.
- timdorr 14y ago
  Yes, there's a full WebKit-based browser. It does not get disabled so your passenger can interact with it while you're driving. But these are general safety issues that Tesla has let the driver decide for themselves, rather than forcing a decision with an automatic disabling at certain speeds. You can also drive the car off a cliff, if you so choose. It's really up to you to have some common sense about things like this. But the default interface and night mode are designed to not be a distraction, so only you and your passengers can create a distraction (which can happen in any car).

by timdorr 14y ago

c1sc0 14y ago

"Really, the only way you can make it worse is by leaving a website up with animation on it or bright colors." ... Does this mean I can surf the web on it? Does this feature get disabled automatically once past a certain speed?

3825 14y ago
I would like to think people are not stupid enough to multitask while driving. After all, we already have these things http://www.amazon.com/Notebook-Laptop-Mount-Truck-Holder/sim/B00197P468/2 http://www.amazon.com/Notebook-Laptop-Mount-Truck-Holder/sim... to mount laptops into cars and trucks. We should not have to do this kind of hand-holding.
timdorr 14y ago
Yes, there's a full WebKit-based browser. It does not get disabled so your passenger can interact with it while you're driving. But these are general safety issues that Tesla has let the driver decide for themselves, rather than forcing a decision with an automatic disabling at certain speeds. You can also drive the car off a cliff, if you so choose. It's really up to you to have some common sense about things like this. But the default interface and night mode are designed to not be a distraction, so only you and your passengers can create a distraction (which can happen in any car).