One of the points of controversy provoked by the refreshed Tesla Model S was the disappearance of physical controls for putting the vehicle into park, drive, neutral or reverse (PRND). In fact, the revised Model S no longer has any stalks behind the helm, moving controls for the indicators, wipers and lights on the new yoke.

The PRND controls were moved to a menu in the revised touchscreen, because the revised Model S is supposed to figure out whether you want to go forward or back depending on what you’re doing and where the vehicle is located. This feature is called ‘ Auto Shift out of Park ‘ and it’s still marked as being in a Beta stage of development (although owners say it actually works pretty well).

If the system doesn’t work as intended and you need to manually shift, there is a bar on the driver’s side of the screen which you swipe up on for drive or swipe down for reverse. And in instances when the screen, for some reasons, no longer works, there is an additional set of PRND controls placed within easy reach.

These touch controls that are located right below the smartphone compartment, the place where the dashboard meets the central tunnel. These manual controls can be activated by touching the panel itself (that also houses the hazard warning light function too) and then they work like they do in any vehicle with an automatic transmission.

Check out this detailed video explanation of how all of this works by new Plaid owner Deji Akingbade, who pretty much goes through all the available functions in his video embedded at the start of the article.

More on the refreshed Model S

The Cheapest (And Most Expensive) Countries To Buy Tesla Model S

Tesla Model S Plaid Is Like Nothing Doug DeMuro Has Ever Driven

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