New Tesla Model Y And Model 3 Retrofit Adds Factory-Like Buttons

• The Tesla Model 3 and its crossover sibling, the Model Y, don’t have physical buttons for most features.
• Owners need to rely on the central touchscreen to perform even the most basic tasks.
• A new third-party addon aims to fix that by adding a factory-like button bar under the touchscreen.

Tesla’s infotainment system is probably the best out there. It has buttery smooth animations, a well-thought-out interface and, more importantly, it just works–unlike some legacy automakers’ systems, which sometimes need a reset or two to work properly.

That said, Tesla’s obsession with simplicity resulted in an unfortunate casualty: no buttons. Nearly everything you do in a Tesla EV requires the driver to interact with the touchscreen, which isn’t always safe.

As a result, there are some third-party add-ons out there that aim to fix Tesla’s mistake by adding some physical buttons. The newest one out there, dubbed the Ctrl-Platform, promises to bring back the old-school way of controlling a car, with a modern twist.

Developed by the same people who made the first-generation Ctrl-Bar, this new version kicks things up a notch by offering more buttons, dynamic displays and a quicker response time. The main attraction of the Ctrl-Platform is called the Ctrl-Bar 2. It has two knurled rotating knobs and eight buttons accompanied by their own little displays. The bar attaches to the bottom of the infotainment screen on the Model 3 and Model Y, and is powered from the USB port in the glovebox via a hidden cable.

All the buttons can be customized to the owner’s liking via a smartphone application. However, here’s where things get interesting. While the first-generation product relied on the smartphone to send commands to the car, the second-gen model links directly to the car’s Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) system, so the inputs are instantaneous and there’s no need for the smartphone app or an internet connection, except for the initial setup.

Using the Ctrl-Bar 2, Model Y and Model 3 owners can lock and unlock the doors, adjust the temperature, change the music and force the windshield wipers to stay on manual mode while using Autopilot. However, besides adding more buttons and integrating small displays, the second-generation button bar can also send commands over the OBD port, enabling drivers to do even more.

This requires a separate accessory called the Ctrl-Bridge, which plugs into the car’s diagnostics port. By doing so, owners can fold the mirror, open the glovebox and toggle the regenerative braking modes from the button bar. A fourth element of the system, dubbed the Ctrl-Stripe, plugs into the button bar and adds dynamic ambient lighting for a bit of extra pizzazz. 

All in all, the complete package brings over 30 shortcuts to the driver’s fingertips, and it takes between 5 and 10 minutes to install each of the components included in the Ctrl-Platform–no tools needed.

It all sounds really good, but there is an asterisk. As with the first-generation Ctrl-Bar, the new model is a Kickstarter project, and it’s worth remembering that all crowdfunded products carry some level of risk. The funding campaign for the Ctrl-Platform went live today, and customers can pay to order one of the available packs, but the first products will be shipped in April 2026.

The products are compatible with all Tesla Model 3 and Model Y versions, but the button bar and accompanying accessories for pre-2024 models will ship first, followed by the add-on for 2024+ vehicles in May 2026. The team told InsideEVs that the slightly longer timeline for the facelifted EVs is due to the new mold tooling, while the production prototypes for pre-2024 cars are already done.

Before making the Ctrl-Platform, the team, which is primarily based in Norway, successfully launched a MagSafe wireless phone charger for the pre-facelift Tesla Model S and Model X, as well as the first-generation Ctrl-Bar.