Good Question
The US wants to know why Tesla is letting people play video games while driving
Fair ask, if we're being honest here.
It honestly seems like we’re approaching some kind of tipping point with Tesla. Nearly every day now, we hear of some new bit of evidence pointing towards Technoking Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company being an increasingly untenable, dangerous, and dehumanizing scam. And yet, Tesla continues to roll on with false promises of self-driving cars and polygonal monstrosities.
While the U.S. government has no real stake in when those Cybertrucks will hit the market, it does sound a bit concerned when it comes to the recent news that Tesla owners apparently can play games like Solitaire on their dash monitors while driving on the damn road. Per a piece from The New York Times, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirms that it is “discussing” with Tesla the ability for owners to access certain games while operating their EVs. Tesla’s recipe for disaster keeps on adding new ingredients.
Bad moves — Three games accompanied the 2021.12.25.6 update this past summer — Solitaire, Sky Force Reloaded, The Battle of Polytopia: Moonrise — to add to the existing 11-game library on the in-car computer system. While the earlier games could only be played if a car was parked, multiple YouTubers have showcased the ability to access newer games while also driving. Combined with Tesla’s poorly performing Autopilot software, and it’s only a matter of time before a Tesla bro becomes a severe danger to themselves and/or those around them.
Why would this even be allowed? — This might be a severe mistake on our part, but let’s just give Tesla the benefit of the doubt right now: It’s certainly possible the carmaker, in a rush to update their EV software, forgot to include the parked car restriction for those three new games. Even if this were the case (big “if” here), that still is terrible optics for Tesla, and shows they are more concerned with keeping up with their own impossible promises than they are with the safety of their customers and innocent bystanders.
