Tesla Under Investigation For Gaming Features 580,000 Tesla Vehicles are under investigation over a gaming feature in the vehicles that regulators warn could distract the drivers.
Tesla has come under fire for providing too much distraction to drivers and now regulators are considering a massive recall.
Furthermore, Tesla has already received criticism for their Model Y vehicle where the display is to the right. As a result the driver has to look away from the road to interact with the controls. Or to see how fast the car is traveling, or play games.
The car plays a variety of games, some of which are quite good we might add. For further reading see the Tesla Arcade.
Furthermore, in the Model Y sedan, there’s no physical gauges. Moreover, if a passenger is playing games while you are driving. How you can see the necessary (and legally required) indicators like the speedometer?
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said its preliminary evaluation covers various 2017-2022 Tesla Model 3, S, X, and Y vehicles. The functionality, which is referred to as “Passenger Play,” “may distract the driver and increase the risk of a crash.”
In addition, NHTSA also “confirmed that this capability has been available since December 2020 in Tesla ‘Passenger Play’-equipped vehicles,” before then, the game feature “was enabled only when the vehicle was in Park.”
Lastly, NHTSA said, “Tesla’s gameplay functionality is visible from the driver’s seat and enabled while driving the vehicle.”
And “evaluate aspects of the feature, including the frequency and use scenarios of Tesla ‘Passenger Play’.”
When you play the games, they have both full screen mode (nothing visible about the car except menu to get to widgets) and partial mode which split the screen with the car UI. Some of the games require the steering wheel as a controller and those are only available when the vehicle is in park.
