When Tesla added to its growing list of dashboard touchscreen games last winter, the update inexplicably allowed drivers to play them while the electric car was on the move. Almost a year later, the US government finally asked the company why.
“We are aware of the concerns of drivers and are discussing the function with the manufacturer,” says the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). told Bloomberg today. “The Vehicle Safety Act prohibits manufacturers from selling vehicles with design defects that pose an unreasonable safety risk.”
This news comes just one day after reporting from The New York Times brought the problem to light. Since the publication of the 2020.48.26 update in December 2020, three games—Solitaire, The battle of Polytopia, and Sky Force reloaded, the latter came in a separate update July 2021 – Allowed users to play while the Tesla was on the move.
As noted by The New York Times, Tesla appears to be aware of the problem. At the start Solitaire, for example, warns a pop-up message that “gaming while driving is only for passengers,” but the operating system does not check who is playing the card game after the user confirms that they are not driving. It basically works on the honor system, like age-restricted websites that allow visitors to enter a fake birthday.
Add this constant, sometimes fatal, problems with Tesla’s autopilot system, and it really feels like these games are a disaster waiting to happen. Over 3,000 Americans lost their lives to distracted driving in 2019, according to the NHTSA.
Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, previously bragged about the gaming capabilities of his electric cars, claiming during a presentation this summer that they were able to play Cyberpunk 2077 thanks to the “PlayStation 5 level” specifications.
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“When you think of a future where the car is often in autopilot or self-drive mode, entertainment becomes more and more important,” explains Musk. “You will see movies, play games, use the internet … things you want to do when you are not driving.”
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