Design question

Assuming you mean the gear stalk, it’s because it’s meant to simulate the gear shifter that normal cars have which typically have it as PRND, so up is R and down is D from neutral

They had to choose a direction, and I think up for reverse/down for drive works the best.

Yes that what I meant, in a gas powered car with the shifter on the floor I think it makes sense on the column not so much, just one man's opinion 😁

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I understand the confusion though, because the on screen gear selector is swiping up to go forward and down to go backward, just like the orientation of the vehicle. But the gear stalk selector mimics a automatic transmission stalk where you pull down to get into drive so that kind of makes sense too.

ICE cars with the gear shifter on the steering column has park at the top most position and drive at the bottom. Tesla probably put reverse up to reduce confusion.

Because in internal combustion cars, the standard was selected generations ago. Turn signal, steering wheel, brakes, accelerator—all work exactly as people have used for about a century. What about the shift control? Previous cars had Reverse toward the top of the range and Drive toward the bottom. Or, rather, they were, from top to bottom: Park, Reverse, Neutral, Over Drive, D3, D2, D1 Rather than introduce a completely unfamiliar physical control standard, it made far more engineering and design sense to let customers rely on their existing, well-established familiarity and memory with certain critical operations.

Think about the natural inclination of when you turn your head around to reverse. Is it more intuitive to click down on the shifter? Or more intuitive to raise your hand up as your turn your head? I think it’s the former

This, 3 on the tree had reverse up and 1st down with N in the middle.

Wait til you get into the Juniper Model Y and you'll need to swipe the touchscreen in the opposite direction of the stock (Swipe up for forward, swipe down for reverse).

I think it makes more sense the way that it is. It just feels more natural

I don't find that confusing. However, I did have a rental not that long ago (Polestar I think), where the selector is in the typical center console position. You push it FORWARD to go backwards, and you pull it BACKWARDS to go forward! I kind of get trying to mimick PRND, but when you only have R and D (because P is a completely separate button), it kinda falls apart. It felt backwards every time I got in it, and I had to look down at the selector every single time.

We'll my friend that's me Everytime I get into the model 3 😝

If it helps, the stalkless ones where you shift via the screen, up is drive, down is reverse.