The steering wheel setup in the Tesla Model 3 — seen above in a shot from the media event last week — is not the version that will be in the final car, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said tonight in a series of tweets.
Instead, the "real steering controls and system" for the Model 3 feel "like a spaceship." Musk went on to say that the lack of a traditional dashboard and instrument cluster "will make sense after part 2" of the Model 3 unveiling. That's expected to come much closer to production.
@HBL_Cosmin Wait until you see the real steering controls and system for the 3. It feels like a spaceship.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2016
The Verge deputy editor Chris Ziegler, who actually rode in the Model 3 last week, wonders if the Model 3 is actually a self-driving car, and posits that the weird setup is a radical rethink of the interior of the car in anticipation of the driver not actually needing to drive. The theory is that by completely dispensing of the driver-centric cockpit in the Model 3, Tesla is signaling that it wants you to sit back and ride.
We may not know for sure until the next Model 3 event, but it's clear that Elon Musk has plenty more Model 3 details to tease us with.