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· Tesla pushed three games for its cars through an OTA update over the summer
· Although there’s an on-screen button that asks for confirmation that the player is a
passenger a driver could play simply by pressing the button
The U.S. road and vehicle safety agency on Wednesday said it
is discussing with Tesla Inc about its software update that lets users play
video games on a touch screen mounted in front of the dashboard of the car, expressing
concern about distraction.
Tesla added the video game feature in an over-the-air software update released over the summer.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
issued a statement after The New York Times on Tuesday reported that auto
experts were worried that games could pose a safety risk by distracting
drivers.
“Distraction-affected crashes are a concern, particularly in
vehicles equipped with an array of convenience technologies such as
entertainment screens. We are aware of driver concerns and are discussing the
feature with the manufacturer,” NHTSA said in the statement.
“The Vehicle Safety Act prohibits manufacturers from selling
vehicles with design defects posing unreasonable risks to safety.”
Gaming in Tesla
In its update, Tesla added three games — solitaire, a jet
fighter and conquest strategy scenario — to which the carmaker is showing a warning
saying, “Playing while the car is in motion is only for passengers.”
Though an on-screen button asks for confirmation that the
player is a passenger, NYT reported that a driver could play simply by pressing
the button.
Although Tesla uses a cabin camera above the rearview mirror to
monitor and keep tabs on the driver while Autopilot is engaged, some vehicles
have simpler cameras that look at a driver’s face, do not precisely track eye
gaze in the dark.
NHTSA concerns
The agency in the statement said distracted driving claimed 3,142
in 2019 alone in the United States.
In 2013, NHTSA issued guidelines to encourage carmakers “to
factor safety and driver distraction prevention into their designs and adoption
of infotainment devices in vehicles.”
The guidelines “recommend that in-vehicle devices be designed
so that they cannot be used by the driver to perform inherently distracting secondary
tasks while driving,” the agency said.
NHTSA’s guidelines “specify a test method to evaluate whether
a task interferes with driver attention, rendering it unsuitable for a driver
to perform while driving.”
The agency in August opened a safety probe into Tesla’s Autopilot,
its driver-assistance system, after it recorded repeated collision instances
with emergency vehicles in the first responder scenes reported involving the
system.
Picture Credit: Pittsburg Post Gazette