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Tesla's Model 3 is loaded with impressive features — but one stands out above the rest

By Matthew DeBord
Tesla Model 3
The Tesla Model 3. Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
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  • We recently spent a few hours sampling the new Tesla Model 3.
  • Its minimalist design is one of its most striking features. 
  • But I had an interesting reaction to the lack of a traditional instrument cluster.


Tesla recently let us borrow a $57,500 Tesla Model 3, in fetching red with a black interior.

We were impressed with the car, but it isn't without some radical departures from business-as-usual, particularly when it comes to user interface and information design.

For example, Tesla has eliminated the instrument cluster. This has bothered some reviewers. 

But I'm of a different mindset. 

Behold the Model 3!

Tesla Model 3
Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

This is a snazzy looking car. Tesla let us borrow it for a few hours, and we made the most of our time, escaping the concrete canyons and traffic of Manhattan for the bucolic sights and winding roads of Northern New Jersey.

Here's the now famous, ultra-minimalist interior. See if you can guess my favorite feature?

The dark gray driver's and passenger seat of a Tesla are visible from inside the car. A touchscreen sits in the center.
The interior of the Tesla Model 3. Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Could it be that large central touchscreen, floating in the middle of the dash like an iPad suspended in space?

How about the almost button-free steering wheel?

Maybe the sleek piece of open-grain wood stretching from side-to-side?

The unadorned central stack? The clean lines of the seats?

Nope, none of those things. Rather, it's the VIEW!

Tesla Model 3
Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

The basic information about the car — whether it's in drive, park, or reverse — and the speedometer are displayed on the left-hand side of the screen. 

Some reviewers have complained about this and said that the Model 3 should have a heads-up display projecting info in front of the driver, due to the lack of a traditional instrument cluster.

But I differ. In practice, gathering information from the touchscreen was easy for me to get used to. So I could then spend most of my time gazing serenely forward, looking at nothing but open road. This is a meditative, blissfully calming experience (not so much that I stopped paying attention, but still quite relaxing).

Can you call an unobstructed, distraction-free view a feature?

I think you can, and in the Model 3, it's my favorite.

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Matt DeBord Headshot
Matthew DeBord
Matthew is a Business Insider senior correspondent who covers transportation (and chess, guitars, home-audio equipment, cocktails, and sometimes classic rock). His focus is the global auto industry, including Tesla, a company he has chronicled since 2007. He also looks after Business Insider's annual Car of the Year award, announced every fall. He's written for The New York Times, Slate, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, HuffPost, and CBS Interactive. He's commented on the auto industry for a variety of media outlets, including Sirius XM, MSNBC, Radio France, KPCC, and KCRW.  DeBord won the 2018 Ken Purdy Award from the International Motor Press Association. He's taught at New York University's Stern School of Business and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. His book "Return to Glory: The Story of Ford's Revival and Victory at the Toughest Race in the World" was published in 2017 by Atlantic Monthly Press and came out in paperback in June 2018. In the New York Times Book Review, Jonathan Kellerman called it a "page-turning synthesis of business book and adventure saga."
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