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Tesla Update Allows Video Games While Driving, and the Feds Aren’t Happy
- misiti3780 5y agoThere is a cabin camera that detects when you are no paying attention to the road.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- BuildTheRobots 5y agoI'm pretty sure they have sensors showing which seats are occupied too - if there isn't a passenger detected, you shouldn't be able to launch the games in the first place - nevermind having to click and confirm you're a passenger.
- comandillos 5y agoTesla user here: It does not work. My Model 3 does not disable autopilot or enables any kind of warning even if you play games with the controller while driving... At least in Europe. Please note that I just tried this once for sake of science and Im not interested in putting lifes in risk
- maxdo 5y agoTesla Model Y Driver. With FSD beta it will disable autopilot even if you stare too much on a screen. It also detects when you're on the phone. It's quite strict.
- comandillos 5y agoThats why I specified I was in Europe... I think that here even the front camera is not providing any kind of video feed to the computers for "privacy reasons"
- jsiepkes 5y agoIf the data from the camera is just used as a sensor (ie. to see if your staring at a phone) and then disable auto-pilot and no footage is stored I wouldn't see how that would be a privacy concern?
- lotu 5y agoEurope tends to have stupid ideas about privacy. The simple transmission of video between the camera and the computer is considered a privacy violation by a lot of privacy hacks.
- can16358p 5y agoIf that's really the case Europe should revisit their privacy rules immediately (preferably by more technically capable/visionary entities). Claiming that on-device processing of driver's video feed without uploading/storing, for safety reasons, is a threat to privacy is outrageously unacceptable.
- cblconfederate 5y agoDo they have carmageddon?
- maxdo 5y agoI'm quite happy as a passenger to play some games in tesla while on a road trip. Tesla's multi media center is a vision of phone-less experience in the car. I can see every day people swiping their phones, doing shopping while driving. In fact every 3rd 4th traffic light "sleeping" driver is due to the phone. How tesla games are that different from having a phone? Tesla at least doing some measures to prevent this. The order of problem of a phone with Tesla screen is not even comparable. And yes, FSD beta detects when you're on the phone. Does any car manufacture or phone manufacture ( AppleCar android auto doing something to stop this )?
- mchanson 5y agoCool Bro!
- ghaff 5y agoThen use your phone as a passenger. I have trouble seeing visual distractions unrelated to driving like games, videos, or books on the console as anything other than an "attractive nuisance."
- maxdo 5y agoLuckily you're not my driver :) They split the screen no issues with that, with me driving or my partner. If you don't like it don't use it. large amount of cars mount phones in the car, with all the notifications, phone calls etc.. It's far, far bigger problem compares to a game that make sense only on a highway few times a year.
- throwaway946513 5y agoMy personal issue with this idea is that cars - presently, are driven by humans, and while we can look to the future, the present necessitates that we design by these standards. Cars are methods of transportation (and even though I'm a car enthusiast, who enjoys driving) they should be driver focused. The center screen in a Tesla is where _all_ the information is available for the driver. There are no secondary gauges or other driver-specific controls or displays. The car, presently, should be oriented for the driver to pay the most attention to the vehicle, the road, and their surroundings. If there's a display behind the driver, or solely on the passenger side of the vehicle out of sight and reach of the driver, then it can be presumed to operate for the passengers of the vehicle.
- tiffanyh 5y agoThis is a known tactic by Elon. He does something that is so incredibly outrageous knowing it will get denied but in doing so, it pushes your mental anchor so far out, that it allows him to "meet in the middle" to get something approved that would not have been approved otherwise if he hadn't anchored you so far out.
- hef19898 5y agoClassic populist modus operadi. Push the pendulum to one extreme and move the perceived middle ground along. He does the same with goal posts and timelines. I have to give it to him so, he gets away with it for years now. And he ultimately delivers product, something most Musk-wannabes fail to do.
- dragontamer 5y ago> And he ultimately delivers product, something most Musk-wannabes fail to do. Where's are the solar roof? Battery swaps? And "coast-to-coast full self driving", $35,000 Model 3? Do you think the personal assistant robot will ever be a delivered product? ------- Musk has mastered the ability to make the public forget about his promises. He doesn't deliver on these promises at all. I think we're generally wising up to his game: Musk carefully SEO's his words and public image to make the internet itself forget about these claims. Only people who actually rely upon their own personal memories (ie: the Battery Swap demo from 2013) can pull this information out. Otherwise, they're fogotten. ---- In any case, this video-games while driving thing is just more of the 2016 claim of "coast to coast full self driving by 2018". He hasn't delivered upon the promise and needs to muck up the waters even more on the subject. https://futurism.com/elon-musk-teslas-autonomous-car-will-drive-coast-to-coast-by-2018 https://futurism.com/elon-musk-teslas-autonomous-car-will-dr... > [Elon] said that the coast-to-coast test is still on track to take place at the end of the year, and that all Tesla cars built since October 2016 would be updated. The plan, announced in a Ted Talk last month, is to “go all the way from a parking lot in California to a parking lot in New York with no controls touched in the entire journey.”
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
- helsinkiandrew 5y agoSurely if someone is killed (either the occupant or another driver or bystander) and the accident could be blamed on some kind of driver error or carelessness, or could have been avoided if the driver was more attentive. Then if the driver was playing a game there would be a good legal case that they were distracted by it and Tesla could be deemed at least party responsible by providing that game in the front of the car - at least enough to be sued by the families for huge sums.
- voxic11 5y agoGenerally the plaintiff must be less than 50% at fault to recover any damages.
- mywittyname 5y agoThat percentage is decided by a jury, and any law firm taking up this sort of case is going to be a really good one.
- woeirua 5y agoIf the Feds clamp down on this, but not on FSD, then we'll know for sure that we have meme regulators. One of these is marginally worse than having access to a modern smartphone. The other literally drives the car, and has proven repeatedly that it is incapable of performing anywhere near the level required to avoid accidents in the real-world.
- shmatt 5y ago> incapable of performing anywhere near the level required to avoid accidents in the real-world. Humans, as well. 38,000 dead and 4,400,000 injured every year in the US due to car accidents. It would be cool to decide on a framework where FSD is tested/approved to be not perfect but better than the average human
- woeirua 5y ago> It would be cool to decide on a framework where FSD is tested/approved to be not perfect but better than the average human Just watch the YouTube videos from beta drivers (which are cherrypicked to be most flattering to Tesla). The number of disengagements in 20 minutes of continuous driving is disheartening.
- lupire 5y agoDisengagements aren't a safety threat. Most cars are permanently disengaged.
- chrinic4948 5y ago> Humans, as well. 38,000 dead and 4,400,000 injured every year in the US due to car accidents. Found the Tesla fanboy. Your numbers include drivers aged 15-25, the most dangerous driving group. Yet, Elon compares the Tesla autopilot driving demographic (age 24-35) to the teenager-biased number. It makes Tesla look good.
- ghaff 5y agoIt doesn't need to be perfect but it needs to be a lot better than the "average" driver which includes intoxicated, fatigued, young, old, etc. drivers in all sorts of weather with many older vehicles with fewer safety systems and possible maintenance issues.
- anewguy9000 5y agoon the other hand, while driving with a passenger my android auto wont let them interact with the system without a "safety pause" every 2 seconds, making it virtually impossible to, for example, change the music or update the navigation. i thought google was famous for hiring people with IQs above 100? or did a lawyer add this feature? or is it pure safetyism? sadly all 3 options seem credible
- ars 5y agoMy car locks out the GPS if you are not in park. Never mind that the screen is right in the middle and the passenger can control it. This irritated me so much I use a separate GPS. I'll greatly prefer it if my car did not try to control my behavior. I'm quite capable of deciding for myself what to do.
- clavicat 5y agoYou know what would be cool? If you could use driving mechanisms as the game controller, like those arcade racing machines but in a real car. Imagine playing Forza or Mario Kart in your Tesla. Given that it’s all electric, this should be doable, right?
- orourkek 5y agoThis is already a feature! https://youtu.be/zqG6AAZ5JvA?t=84 https://youtu.be/zqG6AAZ5JvA?t=84
- SaintGhurka 5y agoA lot of the Tesla games DO use the steering wheel. Centipede, for one. I can never bring myself to play them because I feel like I would look like an imbecile sitting in the car furiously turning the wheel while the car is parked.
- rootusrootus 5y agoIt's also pretty hard on the tires.
- sgustard 5y agoThat's a feature of many Tesla games. Now imagine your steering wheel stops steering the car due to a bug when your passenger fires up a game.
- darknavi 5y agoWhen you play those games with the steering wheel it actually still turns the tires.
- colordrops 5y agoIt has the opposite problem. They intentionally don't disable steering while using the wheel to control the video game. The result is that your tires get ground down with a pile of black rubber dust on your driveway. I don't let the kids use the steering wheel for fear of destroying the tires. I would be surprised if it is possible to disconnect the steering from the mechanical steering mechanism.
- NoGravitas 5y agoI can't even pair a new Bluetooth device while my car is in motion, even if it's a passenger doing it.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- FridayoLeary 5y agoWhy should that be teslas problem? It's up to the driver to follow the rules of the road. Unless the games themselves encourage dangerous driving, this is nothing more then a potential distraction. It's the manufacters job to make sure their cars don't get in the way of safe driving, it's entirely the drivers responsibility not to distract himself. The regulator must trust the driver to be responsible.
- hncurious 5y ago1. Smartphones allow video games while driving. 2. Isn't the intention to allow passengers to use the screen? 3. Idiots who don't pay attention to the road already don't pay attention to the road. They are text messaging, checking notifications, putting on makeup, playing candy crush on their phone, watching netflix on their phone, scrolling twitter, reading email, looking for podcasts and on and on.
- rootusrootus 5y ago> 2. Isn't the intention to allow passengers to use the screen? If it were a separate screen in front of the passenger, this would be a good argument. But since it is the screen the driver is supposed to look at for driving-related information...
- hunterb123 5y ago> supposed to look at for driving-related information... You should be looking at your instrument cluster, not the middle screen for essential driving related information. - edit - I stand corrected, there is no instrument cluster (only aftermarket ones I mistook for stock). So does this split the screen or take over the whole screen? If it splits it, I'm still okay with it, if it's the whole screen I'm not.
- buffington 5y agoThere is no instrument cluster in a Model 3.
- givemeethekeys 5y agoIf, while driving, the car gets into a wreck and it is found that the driver was playing video games while driving, then the car maker should be held at least partially liable. On the other hand, if the driver decided to install their own game system so that they can drive and game at the same time - that would make it solely the driver's responsibility.
- 5y ago
- SLWW 5y agoRemember, it's not bad driving that kills people. It's those kids and their darn video games! man the 80s were a dark time
- Tiktaalik 5y agoThis is completely insane. Where on earth are the regulators? The book needs to be thrown at Tesla.