NHTSA says it's discussing with Tesla about video game feature

• 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.

ALSO READ: SEC probes Tesla over whistleblower claims on fire-prone solar panel defects

“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.

ALSO READ: Tesla's Musk offloads nearly $10B worth of share since Twitter poll, passes halfway mark

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: Pittsburgh Post Gazette