Electric automaker Tesla will update its vehicle software to prevent drivers from playing video games on the console while its cars are moving, the US traffic safety regulator has said.
The move by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) follows an announcement on Wednesday that it had opened a formal investigation on 580,000 Tesla vehicles sold since 2017 over the automaker’s decision to allow drivers to play games on the front centre touchscreen while the vehicle was moving.
“Following the opening of a preliminary evaluation of Tesla’s ‘Passenger Play,’ Tesla informed the agency that it is changing the functionality of this feature,” an NHTSA spokesperson said in a statement emailed to AFP.
“In a new software update, ‘Passenger Play’ will now be locked and unusable when the vehicle is in motion,” the spokesperson added.
The spokesperson also said Tesla has informed the NHTSA that a software update will lock the “Passenger Play” feature and make it unusable when the vehicle is in motion.
The affected models are Models 3, S, X and Y.
The NHTSA said the option to engage Passenger Play on the main display during driving made drivers susceptible to distraction and raised the risks of an accident. NHTSA undertook the probe following a customer complaint earlier this year.
Experts have raised concerns that drivers may not pay attention on the road, especially when Tesla vehicles are operating in a semi-autonomous mode known as Autopilot.
(With agency inputs)
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Keyword: Tesla deactivates video games in moving cars after US safety probe