Tesla Under Official Investigation For In-Car Games Playable Behind The Wheel

Drivers should stick to playing zitch dog on the road—it’s far safer than the built-in video games that Tesla quietly added to its software earlier this year. The National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) has now launched a formal investigation against the automaker to assess its entertainment system’s “driver distraction potential,” according to Gizmodo.

The agency began discussions with Tesla over the offending system, called ‘Passenger Play’, earlier this month. Back then, the NHTSA called it a potential “design defect” that could put drivers at risk of “distraction-affected crashes.”

It has since moved into a Preliminary Evaluation covering all Tesla models produced between 2017 and 2022, amounting to about 580,000 vehicles.

As indicated by the name, ‘Passenger Play’ is meant for passengers, but little is done to stop drivers from playing games behind the wheel. The only restraint is a warning message describing that the game “is for everyone but playing while the car is in motion is only for passengers.”

The video games, which comprise Solitaire, Sky Force Reloaded, and The Battle of Polytopia: Moonprise, add to an existing list of in-car games that can only be played while the vehicle is in park.

As the new games are accessible by the driver even when they’re behind the wheel, the safety agency will now look at the system’s “driver distraction potential” and investigate scenarios of a driver potentially launching them, Gizmodo notes.

Although it can be argued that Tesla drivers might engage autopilot mode before accessing ‘Passenger Play’, the agency cautioned that their safety could still be jeopardized, since “no commercially available motor vehicles today can drive themselves.”

“Every available vehicle requires the human driver to be in control at all times, and all State laws hold the human driver responsible for the operation of their vehicles…  as with all technologies and equipment on motor vehicles, drivers must use them correctly and responsibly,” the NHTSA warned in a statement published by Gizmodo.

[via Gizmodo, cover photo 93770553 © Helgidinson | Dreamstime.com]