Hundreds of thousands of people might’ve put down $1,000 on a Tesla Model 3, but that doesn’t mean we actually know what the inside looks like. The Model 3 is still two years away from real production, and minor design details like “what the cabin looks like” still haven’t been confirmed.
Thankfully, the internet is on it. Instagram user Richard Hennessy posted a photo of the inside of what looks a lot like a Model 3 being driven around Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California.
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The pictures show an interior that looks very similar to the prototype that was demoed in March. There’s still a steering wheel, no instruments, a giant center tablet to control the car, and a sleek, covered center console.
The presence of a steering wheel is the most significant feature from this photo. We’ve already heard rumors that the Model 3 will be mostly self-driving, so it would be logical for it to ship without a steering wheel.
Of course, having a wheel on a prototype doesn’t mean it will ship with one. Even the most advanced autonomous driving technology can’t deal with every single situation on the road just now, so a set of controls for humans is still a necessary feature. But the lack of instruments hint that this could still be a mostly self-driving car that’s autonomous first, human-controlled second.
Other than the wheel, the other big design feature is the center tablet. Tesla has always been a fan of using a large touchscreen display, but the horizontal orientation in the Model 3 is a departure from the tablet in the Model S and X. It provides more screen real estate than those cars, but at the cost of dominating the cabin.
