Breaking down the UX of a 2023 Tesla Model 3 — My first-time driver’s experience and identifying improvement opportunities.
I was merging onto the 405 North. I’ve driven this freeway ramp time and time again for 12 years, but this time felt different.
Anticipating California’s quick ending lane merges and aggressive drivers, I gripped the wheel tightly. My eyes darted every half second to find an opening into the next lane.
But my left side view mirror wasn’t adjusted properly and I couldn’t clearly see my blind spot. I was about to reach my hand over to the to quickly adjust the mirror but then remembered that the physical controls were replaced by a dense menu hidden within the car’s center display. I was overwhelmed.
My palms were sweaty. Knees weak, arms heavy. I just wanted to merge left, but my mind was spaghetti.Live look at me trying to merge onto the freeway
As I looked over my shoulder, I felt a warm sensation down my neck — my mind flashing back to almost being hit by a merging semi-truck a couple of years ago.
With the dotted lines running out, I floored it, squeezing ahead of the car that was moments ago parallel to me before hitting the brakes to avoid hitting the car in front.
Welcome to the Tesla Model 3 experience.
· Intro
· First Impressions
· The initial driving experience
· Merging on the freeway
· Charging Experience
· Air conditioning
· Parking with AI
· Debrief
· Back to the original question
After 12 years of driving, why did this car make me feel so anxious?
The Tesla Model 3 revolutionized the automotive industry, leading to a major EV push over the last few years. In 2023, it was the best selling passenger car in California, and the 2nd best selling EV in the world (only behind the Model Y) — with nearly 530k units sold globally. The brand has built a cult-like following. The cars are just different, and people love them.
But, why?
In my experience driving the Model 3 for the first time, I found myself feeling confused, overwhelmed, and even anxious.
What makes the Model 3 shine so much that it’s become mainstream despite these shortcomings?
Let’s dive into the User Experience of what makes a Tesla a Tesla.
I’ve had a passion for cars ever since I got my first Hot Wheels sets.
When I was 6 years old, I proudly said,
“I want to be a car designer when I grow up!”
Twenty-some years later — Automotive UX has become a really interesting space to me ever since Tesla grew in popularity with the Model S and then took the world by storm with Models 3 & Y.
So, I thought — why not borrow some cars to evaluate their UX?
When it comes to in-car UX, I think of the Passengers’ Experience and the Driver’s Experience, which I’ll focus on specifically. For most daily-driving situations, I believe the primary goal of driving a passenger car like the Model 3 is to safely get from Point A to Point B. A secondary goal is to do so as comfortably as possible.
This is the lens I’ll use to analyze the car throughout this article.
Getting into the Model 3 felt different
I got into the driver’s seat of my friend’s Model 3 with curiosity and a bit of uncertainty of how driving it was going to go. The Model 3 is different. There isn’t a screen or any gauges behind the steering wheel. It has a super minimal interior, and one big screen in the middle of the car to control almost everything. There isn’t button or dial in sight except for the knobs on the steering wheel.
As I would before driving any new car, I adjusted the seats, steering wheel, and side mirrors. The seat adjustment was normal, with the adjustors on the side of the seat.
So far so good.
It wasn’t immediately apparent how to adjust the mirrors and steering wheel. After some searching, I found the respective settings within the screen, and then used the steering wheel knobs to make the adjustments. Different — but not a problem when the car is parked.
We were hungry so I set up the navigation system to guide us
I found the navigation app on the screen and typed in Anaheim Packing House. After pulling up the route, I noticed that the UI shows how much battery the car is expected to have left when you arrive to your destination.
Curious — I decided to see what would happen if I navigated to a far off destination like San Francisco.
I was delighted to see recommendations on where to stop on the way to charge, along with how many other Teslas are on the way, how many chargers will be available when you arrive, and the charging cost.
Detailed route planning and charging information on the Model 3 navigation system
I’m not exaggerating when I say delighted. I’ve experienced plenty of stressful experiences with EV charging at Electrify America. Range anxiety is real, and planning out charging stops with non-Tesla EVs can be especially time-consuming and stressful.
Tesla’s vertical integration seamlessly presents all the information you need to make your EV experience smoother and calm anxieties. I’m a big fan of Tesla’s navigation system and route planning. I think that, coupled with their charging network, is the company’s strongest selling point.
A curiosity
How will this be handled now that non-Teslas are able to charge at Tesla chargers? Unless there’s some sort of integration within the other OEM’s software, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, etc, it’s unclear how Tesla would be able to accurately project how many cars are en route and how many chargers will be available.
Driving out of the structure was hectic
15 seconds after I started driving, I stopped because I didn’t like the one-pedal driving and wanted to change the drive mode. I’ve tried one-pedal driving before and I don’t like it. It took me another 20 seconds to find the Dynamics section in the car’s settings, where I changed the setting to ‘Creep’.
The Dynamics settings found within the car’s center screen
I started driving again and then 10 seconds later I stopped again while looking over to the settings again, accidentally hitting the brakes hard and jolting the car to a stop, spooking out my friend.
Him: “You don’t have to hit the breaks like that 😒”
Me: “This thing is aggressive! 😥”
I didn’t like ‘Creep’ either so I changed the setting to ‘Roll when pedals are released.’
Confident that this was the right setting for me, I started driving and pulled up the navigation app again. My friend then went on to explain that he hates when he’s driven by other people in a Tesla because they can’t get over the one-pedal driving dynamics… I bet he was regretting lending me his car in that moment.
Then, realizing that ‘Roll’ didn’t feel right, I stopped the car again near the parking structure’s exit. I let out a sigh as I looked for the Dynamics settings once again and changed the mode back to ‘Creep’ and the acceleration mode to ‘Chill.’
Finally, as I turned left and out of the structure, the car rang different chimes as me because I was nearing the curb.
It caught me off guard. My senses were overwhelmed.
In isolation, all these events wouldn’t mean a whole lot. One-Pedal driving is a common EV driving dynamic that just takes some getting used to. Changing drive modes isn’t a new concept, and accidentally braking too hard can happen from time to time. Also, many cars (including my own) have advanced visual and audible safety features to let you know when you’re close to hitting something.
But all this happened to me in my first 3.5 minutes of driving the car. A regular Model 3 driver likely wouldn’t face this sequence of events, but since the car was so different from others I’d driven, it happened to me.
I drove out of the parking structure exclaiming, “I don’t like this car man.” My friend laughed.
Having no information behind the steering wheel changes the driving experience
Any time I drive with the GPS on, I tend to glance over to the screen fairly often. As we waited at a red light to turn left on Culver, I realized I was struggling to see the map clearly.
The map is positioned on the right side of the screen, in favor of the blindspot camera, speedometer, and 3D rendered view of the surrounding environment, called Real-Time Visualization, on the left. As a result, I had to look down and far to the right, away from the road, to see the map. If it was on the left side, it would be more in my line of sight and easier to see, while still being able to keep the road in my peripheral vision.
The Model 3 screen with the map visible
I figure that this is created out of Tesla’s own constraint of not having a small screen behind the steering wheel, where drivers would normally find information about their speed, 3D renderings similar to Real-Time Visualization, and a small version of the map.
This makes me curious:
Do drivers need to see this high level of detail while driving?
The granularity is certainly important in the backend for features like Full-Self Driving and collision prevention, but how does this level of visual detail on the screen help a driver? It looks beautiful, but there seems to be more information than necessary. In contrast, the Model S & X both have driver’s screens which nicely integrate maps and Real-time visualization. It’s simpler and shows just enough useful information, despite incorporating multiple pieces of context in one place.
The HUD screen in the Tesla Model S, located behind the steering wheel
I realized my side mirrors weren’t adjusted properly when I was merging on the freeway
I’d feared this moment within the first minutes of getting into the car. There weren’t any physical controls on the side to quickly adjust them. I’d have to dig through the screen to find the settings. I really didn’t want to do that while driving on the freeway.
I started indicating left to signal my intent and had to scoot my body up and straighten my back to see through the mirror properly. The blind spot camera feed showed up on the center screen, but it wasn’t in my line of sight and it was making things more confusing than helpful.
I quickly looked left and right from road to screen and around my shoulder, found a gap in the road, and quickly accelerated into it. We made it.
Having the blind spot camera feed appear in the middle of the car felt very counter intuitive. I needed to turn left, but I had to look right, causing me to hesitate even more because the perception just felt off. It’s like the Stroop Effect — where the name of a color is spelled out, but the font is a different color. It takes longer than normal to determine the color of the font because it’s confusing.
The Stroop Effect — When the name of a color is spelled out in a different color, it affects the amount of time it takes to name the color
Now — to fix those mirrors.
Thinking I was clever, I first tried using the voice assistant to pull up the adjustment settings.
Me: “Adjust mirrors”
Tesla: “Command not understood”Nice…
Then, once again, I had to quickly look left and right from road to screen to find the settings on the screen and adjust the mirrors.
Look at how I had to keep looking away from the road. This went on for 36 seconds.
While everything worked out in the end, it wasn’t easy. Quick reaction times and alertness matter when driving a car. Having intuitive, user-centered, and tactile controls can mean the difference between simply making an adjustment and dealing with an unsafe situation. As Rubens Cantuni aptly states in his 2019 article Tesla’s UX is too far ahead to make sense (now), “while you’re driving, every second you take your eyes off the road you expose yourself, your passengers and other people around you to a potentially fatal danger.”
The Tesla Charging Experience is seamless
We made it to the charging station after about 10 minutes on the freeway. The experience here made me quickly forget the stress I’d just been through on the road.
It was so easy to get the charge started. All I had to do was get out of the car, open the charging port, unhook the charging socket from the charger, and plug it into the car. The charge started right away. It was even easier than starting a gas fill-up.
A Model 3 charging at a Tesla charger
The downside is the wait time. Gas fill-ups generally take a few minutes. Charging a Model 3 from 10–80% can take 25 minutes if you’re using the newest chargers. The actual time depends on a variety of factors.
The plug-and-play process, honestly, felt delightful — especially compared to the subpar experiences I’ve had charging at Electrify America. Of course, there’s up-front work done to make this experience smooth. New Tesla owners have set up the charging payment method when they first get the car. After that, they never have to open up an app, authorize any transaction, or wait to make sure the charge is working.
As Ethan Wong put it in his article A Deep Dive into Tesla’s User Interface, “Tesla’s integration with its charging network turns the usual “where’s the next charge?” road trip anxiety into a game of electric ease.”
Thanks to Tesla’s vertical integration, charging experiences — routing to a charger, connecting to the charger, and charging the car — are seamless. Ethan says it “feels like having a co-pilot with insider knowledge.” To me, it’s the north star for the EV charging experience and my favorite thing about Tesla.
The air conditioning controls are useful, but distracting
As we headed to grab a bite after our charging stop, my friend wanted to adjust the AC to feel the air more. Teslas allow you to adjust the air conditioning very precisely with multi-touch controls like a smartphone. It’s an innovation I appreciate because many I’ve found myself constantly tweaking the positioning of the air vent to get the positioning just right.
However, accessing fan strength, defrosters, and precision air requires opening a popup that blocks most of the screen. I was using the GPS and my friend had to open up the popup to adjust the airflow, blocking the view of the map and slightly distracting me in the process.
Air conditioning settings blocking the navigation system during a drive
From the driver’s perspective, I had to tap the screen multiple times without haptic feedback anytime I wanted to adjust the temperature. This made confirming if the adjustments were made to be difficult without glancing away from the road.
AI lacks human intuition
As we pulled into the parking lot, my friend pointed out the new auto-parking feature that showed up on the screen. Hesitant to try it out, I drove a little further, contemplated it, started backing into a spot and said “Next time”.
My friend tapped the parking icon anyway. “If you’re backing in dude, just autopark.”
So I let the steering wheel go and let the Model 3 do its thing. The steering wheel turned a full 360 degrees and the car started reversing. Then the car stopped and started moving forward to adjust it’s angle — which wasn’t totally necessary.
At the same time, there was a couple crossing us. I could see them through the side mirror but also through the Real-Time Visualization. First they tried to go in front of the car as it was reversing. Then, as the car started going forward, they started moving behind the car. The couple got pretty close to the back of the car as it was about to start reversing again.
Unlike while driving, this level of Real-Time Visualization detail is beneficial for the context because it creates peace of mind that the car can see everything around it while it’s autonomously driving.
Visual of Autopark in Progress
My human intuition kicked in and I took over to ensure the car wouldn’t move and the people could pass. The Model 3 likely would’ve waited for the people to pass by but it was hard to trust it in the moment and it was a risk I didn’t want to take.
Good driving requires accounting for the emotions of people in and around the car and not making them feel like they’re in danger. Human intuition and empathy are 2 features that AI lacks (and hopefully always will).
We got our acaí bowls — time for a debrief
The lack of buttons and dials creates a different mental model for drivers
When I think about different rental/borrowed cars I’ve driven this year — a Dodge Charger, Volkswagen Tiguan, and Lexus LS — they were all pretty easy to get adjusted to. I really just needed to adjust my seats and mirrors and get acquainted with where all the buttons were and the driving sensitivity. For the most part, everything was where I expected them to be.
Driving a Tesla, on the other hand, requires a completely different mental model than traditional cars do. These cars are not optimized for short term situations like renting, putting those drivers — and surroundings on the road like pedestrians and other drivers — at higher risk as they get used to operating many functions within a screen.
A screen-centered driving experience maximizes cognitive load and reduces safety
The software is elegant. It’s snappy and I really like how it looks. The maps and route planning are great. But when driving, you’re supposed to be focused at the road, not the screen. The settings within the screen’s interface are necessary, but the small buttons and uniform design make it hard to differentiate things from each other, increasing distraction while driving.
If the screen were intended to be used like a handheld iPad, it would be easy to use. But that’s not the use case, and leads to more friction on the driving experience, which reduces safety.
Three-year Model 3 Owner @acslater017 (and 34 likers of his YouTube comment) backs that notion up.
“I shouldn’t need to navigate multiple menu layers, hunt around different areas of the screen, or perform fine gestures while trying to safely operate the car.”YouTube comment from @acslater017 on Tesla’s official Model 3 Touchscreen tutorial video
How can the Model 3 Experience instantly improve?
1. Add a small driver’s screen behind the steering wheel
The Model S & X have it already, and EV competitors like the Polestar 3 have it too and allow the most important information to be elegantly displayed in a way that doesn’t compromise safety.
2. Incorporate simple buttons and dials to make basic functionality easy to access
Simple buttons and dials help reduce decision time and make taking actions that support driving safer and more efficient. The fact that 3rd party accessories to add buttons and dials to the Model 3 exist tells you everything you need to know. People are really paying $250 to make their $45k car more useable.
Left: The Polestar 2 HUD screen, located behind the steering wheel | Right: The S3XY Knob, a 3rd party attachement
Cost savings and efficiencies play a role
If you know anything about Elon Musk’s intense journey to make Tesla the powerful brand that it is today, you might know that at multiple points the company was tight on cash and to be able to get their cars out efficiently and affordably, many decisions to cut costs and create efficiencies had to be made.
While this isn’t the only factor, I do believe it plays a role in the decision to eliminate a lot of the buttons. Individually, each piece isn’t expensive, but when scaling up to hundreds of thousands of units, it adds up a lot. It very well could have been a decision to reduce the price of the car.
From the consumer side of things, though, Tesla’s decision to not include buttons and dials is almost like Apple removing important ports (like HDMI) from Macs and replacing them with a few USB-C ports. After enough customer complaints, Apple finally brought them back. It would be great to see Tesla do something similar.
So, back to the original question…
What makes the Model 3 shine so much that it’s become mainstream despite these shortcomings?
Online research uncovers a list pros and cons from owners & reviewers.
Pros:
EV Range, Charging network, Continually improving software, Aesthetics
Cons:
Build quality, Road noise while driving, Customer support, Most controls being within the touch screen
My takeaway:
Features like range and easy charging outweigh the Model 3’s negatives. However, Teslas were once the only feasible EV option. Now they’re not.
In 2025, there are great EVs from competitors like Volvo, Hyundai, Rivian, and BYD. Granted, all of them have their own set of pros and cons — and we likely wouldn’t have as many good options as we do if Tesla didn’t set the standard in the first place.
I’m looking forward to seeing how the automotive industry grows from here.
I’m Nikhil Mehrotra, a UX Designer who loves cars and car design. Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this deep-dive.
I took the Tesla Model 3 for a spin— here’s how it went was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
