Over a two-year period, Tesla introduced the ability to play computer games on the dashboard while driving in more than 580,000 3-, S-, X- and Y-series electric vehicles. Officially, this function was only intended for the passengers. However, some Tesla drivers have abused this feature.
Playing computer games while driving poses a significant safety risk, even if only the passengers are playing while the drivers can see what is happening. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA Tesla asked to disable this feature. Because it was also often used by travelers.
NHTSA reports that one-third of all gaming usages while driving involved only the drivers on board. But even if only the person riding with you played, the authority does not consider the function to be appropriate. Other manufacturers use optical filters or a spatial arrangement of the screens to ensure that drivers are not distracted. Alternatively, the screen can be deactivated if a driving monitoring system detects that there is a distraction.
Tesla introduced the ability to access and play computer games on the dash screens in June 2019. Initially, however, this was only possible when the vehicle was parked. The screen in some Tesla models acts as a kind of dashboard. From December 2020, Tesla vehicles received a software upgrade that made it possible to play various games while driving.
Tesla made sure the person driving wasn’t playing. In autumn 2021, one person reported that the NHTSA. The examination of the game function then started. Tesla provided the data, but said there were no complaints or reported collisions attributable to the game. Data analyzed by NHTSA revealed that while the gaming feature was infrequently used, 30 percent of the time it was used irresponsibly. It was then deactivated again.
The function was deactivated and the procedure was discontinued. However, further analysis is ongoing as to how deflection behaves in Teslas.