New York.- Not long after buying a Tesla Model 3 this summer, Vince Patton saw a YouTube clip highlighting a feature that took him by surprise: three video games that can be played on the large touchscreen mounted in front of the dash as they drive down the highway.
“I thought surely that couldn’t be right,” said Patton, a retiree in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
But in a parking lot, he gave it a try and was able to play a game of solitaire on the Model 3 while on the go. “I only did it for five seconds and then I turned it off,” he said. “I am amazed. To me, it seems inherently dangerous.”
The automaker added the games in an over-the-air software update that shipped to most of its cars this summer. A driver or passenger can play them in full view of the driver, raising new questions about whether Tesla is compromising safety as it rushes to add new technology and features to its cars.
“It’s a big concern if it plays into the driver’s view,” said Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, which coordinates statewide efforts to promote safe driving.
Tesla’s Autopilot system, which can steer, slow and speed up a car on its own, has faced criticism from safety experts for several years because it allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel for extended periods, even though it’s supposed to they shouldn’t. And it lacks an effective means of ensuring drivers keep their eyes on the road.
The combination of hands-free driving and drivers looking the other way has been linked to at least 12 traffic fatalities since 2016 in Tesla cars operating in autopilot mode, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Roads. Adkins said the addition of video games “is crying out for the NHTSA to provide some guidance and regulation.”
Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, did not respond to several emails asking about the new video games and whether they could compromise security.
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