The prominent infotainment screen on Tesla’s Model 3 became an issue for one owner recently, after police mistook the vast display for a laptop computer strapped to the dashboard and pulled them over.
Tesla owner Jon Hall recorded the incident via his rear-facing dashcam, which captured the moment a police motorbike pulled him over to tell him “you’re not allowed to have your computer mounted on there.”
The display in the Model 3 is one of the largest in the business, at 15-inches and mounted in landscape orientation in the centre of the dash. It’s second only in fact to its siblings – the Tesla Model X and Model S, which both use 17-inch, portrait-mounted displays.
That hefty display is necessary though, as it not only shows sat-nav and media but controls all of the car’s functions and even functions as a gauge cluster.
Luckily for Hall, he was able to explain the screen’s functions to the traffic officer, explaining: “This is stock with the car. This literally is my only centre console. I can’t remove this – it’s how I control my air-conditioning.”
The officer appeared interested in the car, asking whether it was capable of ‘other computer functions’ and apologising for the unnecessary traffic stop.