Tesla won't allow you to game while the car is moving

[fUnDaMeNtAl_knobhead]

Summary

Apparently Tesla values your life (/s) so they informed the NHTSA that they would disable the Car's entertainment system wile the car was moving.

 

Quotes

Quote

Tesla won’t let people play video games on its cars’ built-in display while in motion anymore, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This change, which will be included in a software update, comes right on the heels of the NHTSA announcing an investigation into the feature, which would include the evaluation of over half a million cars.

 

My thoughts

 If you haven't figured it out yet Tesla is not doing this because they value your life. No, they did this to prevent getting sued out of their butts. I don't know if  this was the best solution. SO I am pretty disappointed in the direction Tesla is going nowadays

 

Sources

https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/23/22852283/tesla-nhtsa-in-car-games-driving-passenger-play-arcade

[Arika]

It shouldn't have been included in the first place, I can't think of any good reason why anyone would need such an entertainment system in their car.

 

8 minutes ago, linux fanboy said:

 If you haven't figured it out yet Tesla is not doing this because they value your life. No, they did this to prevent getting sued out of their butts. I don't know if  this was the best solution. SO I am pretty disappointed in the direction Tesla is going nowadays

 

Of all the shitty takes i've seen on this forum, this one is pretty up there

Glad it's getting disabled while moving regardless of their reason. People are stupid and easily distracted enough in regular cars as is. When you're driving you should be focused on DRIVING.

[RONOTHAN##]

I'd be surprised if they didn't do this. It's not a perfect solution, but it's the best one until full self driving eventually is ready for prime time (in like 10 years). 

[Kisai]

15 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

I'd be surprised if they didn't do this. It's not a perfect solution, but it's the best one until full self driving eventually is ready for prime time (in like 10 years). 

The obvious problem here is that infotainment system should have been separate so the backseat passengers and the front-seat passenger get their own screens that the driver can't see and be distracted from. Y'know like in an airplane.

 

But cost/practical consideration, those screens are going to burn out/die if they're exposed to the sunlight for long periods of time. So perhaps Tesla could come up with a new concept for vehicles intended to have passengers.

 

Because let's be serious, nobody bought a Tesla for a family car, they bought it because they could afford it and it was "cool" at the time.

[wanderingfool2]

52 minutes ago, linux fanboy said:

No, they did this to prevent getting sued out of their butts

I don't think many people would have win a suit for this.  I mean it literally says playing of solitaire is meant for passengers only and you have to click a button confirming you are a passenger.  At that stage, if a driver were to be playing it the liability would fall onto them.  The more likely reason would be because NHTSA has Missy Cummings as an advisor now who is notoriously anti-tesla, so they would want to try stopping things that might give NHTSA more power to regulate them.

 

50 minutes ago, Arika S said:

Of all the shitty takes i've seen on this forum, this one is pretty up there

Glad it's getting disabled while moving regardless of their reason. People are stupid and easily distracted enough in regular cars as is. When you're driving you should be focused on DRIVING.

I sort of agree, but then at the same time you can start questioning why are phones not auto-disabling while driving or preventing from doing so when paired (it was actually a feature that was discussed a really long time ago now, after the studies showed that even hands free driving could cause enough distractions)

[Eaglerino]

how the heck wasn't this a thing from the start

[mr moose]

Things move pretty slow in the US,  Here It's illegal for any display (exemption being GPS and vehicle systems monitoring) to be visible form the drivers position while the car is moving.

[Zodiark1593]

8 hours ago, wanderingfool2 said:

 

 

I sort of agree, but then at the same time you can start questioning why are phones not auto-disabling while driving or preventing from doing so when paired (it was actually a feature that was discussed a really long time ago now, after the studies showed that even hands free driving could cause enough distractions)

For starters, the Tesla’s display is fixed and always in view of the driver. How can a phone tell if its in the hands of a driver or passenger? “Sorry bus rider, or kid in the back seat, no phone for you!”
 

And second, auto makers are held to a higher standard of safety than smartphone makers. Apple and Samsung, for example, don’t owe a duty of care to drivers. Tesla, an auto manufacturer, does owe this duty of care. 

[Doobeedoo]

So a passenger next to you can't game while you drive?

[poochyena]

5 hours ago, mr moose said:

Things move pretty slow in the US,  Here It's illegal for any display (exemption being GPS and vehicle systems monitoring) to be visible form the drivers position while the car is moving.

As it should be. Everyone has a phone, there is no reason a car need a complex touchscreen system.

[Fasterthannothing]

12 hours ago, Arika S said:

It shouldn't have been included in the first place, I can't think of any good reason why anyone would need such an entertainment system in their car.

 

Of all the shitty takes i've seen on this forum, this one is pretty up there

Glad it's getting disabled while moving regardless of their reason. People are stupid and easily distracted enough in regular cars as is. When you're driving you should be focused on DRIVING.

Its a self driving vehicle  why not? if the regulations are going to be so strict on self driving cars that you cant do anything but stare at the road there is absolutely no point in a self driving car

 

[Middcore]

17 minutes ago, SlidewaysZ said:

Its a self driving vehicle  why not? 

 

 

Yeah, not really. 

 

12 hours ago, Arika S said:

Of all the shitty takes i've seen on this forum, this one is pretty up there

 

 

I mean, it's true. Billion dollar corporations don't value your life, not even ones run by Based Iron Man Meme-Daddy Elon who's going to take us all to Mars someday, 

[wanderingfool2]

3 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

For starters, the Tesla’s display is fixed and always in view of the driver. How can a phone tell if its in the hands of a driver or passenger? “Sorry bus rider, or kid in the back seat, no phone for you!”
 

And second, auto makers are held to a higher standard of safety than smartphone makers. Apple and Samsung, for example, don’t owe a duty of care to drivers. Tesla, an auto manufacturer, does owe this duty of care. 

Vehicles literally allow pairing of phones (answering of phones and viewing inbound text messages).  With that said as well, on a dark night a phone can be just as dangerous and distracting by a passenger in the backseat using it than a console screen.

[AnonymousGuy]

I think there was a tweet saying you'll still be able to do it if you mess with the passenger seat controls to "prove" you're a passenger.

 

I spent 6 hours in an M3 grinding out Sky Force Reloaded, as a passenger.

[IkeaGnome]

I am very surprised this wasn't a thing before. 

If my radio disables DVD playback(99.9% of them do) when you're not in "park", why are games any different?

[tim0901]

19 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

I am very surprised this wasn't a thing before. 

If my radio disables DVD playback(99.9% of them do) when you're not in "park", why are games any different?

It was until December 2020. Before then - just like now - games were only available while parked.

[Salv8 (sam)]

my grandmother has a Mercedes E-class from the early to mid 2000's (i don't know the actual year) and it has a tv.

guess what it does when it's on and you are driving.

a warning pops up saying:

Quote

OI DUMBASS, DON'T WATCH TV WHILE DRIVING!

something along those lines anyways.

it's been law here in Australia (for quite awhile i might add) that the equipment in the car CANNOT distract the driver in anyway that may cause a distraction to the operation of the vehicle.

this means no fancy animations for the car's infotainment system (the screen in the middle)

no moving pictures, i.e movies and tv shows and the like

AND ESPECIALLY NO GAMES.

this update VERY MUCH broke the law, i don't know how our government handles this but i'm sure it involves elon, tesla's lawyers, and some very angry politicians.

[Zodiark1593]

31 minutes ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

my grandmother has a Mercedes E-class from the early to mid 2000's (i don't know the actual year) and it has a tv.

guess what it does when it's on and you are driving.

a warning pops up saying:

something along those lines anyways.

it's been law here in Australia (for quite awhile i might add) that the equipment in the car CANNOT distract the driver in anyway that may cause a distraction to the operation of the vehicle.

this means no fancy animations for the car's infotainment system (the screen in the middle)

no moving pictures, i.e movies and tv shows and the like

AND ESPECIALLY NO GAMES.

this update VERY MUCH broke the law, i don't know how our government handles this but i'm sure it involves elon, tesla's lawyers, and some very angry politicians.

For some reason, I don't think Musk is the kind of person to lose any sleep over angry politicians. I'd imagine even in compliance, he'd still display thinly veiled contempt and manage to stir some anger. Though as showing disrespect for politicians isn't illegal, Musk only need care about the law.

 

2 hours ago, wanderingfool2 said:

Vehicles literally allow pairing of phones (answering of phones and viewing inbound text messages).  With that said as well, on a dark night a phone can be just as dangerous and distracting by a passenger in the backseat using it than a console screen.

So would the answer be to disable smartphones altogether when in a moving vehicle, passenger or not? Bear in mind that vehicles often come with in-cabin lights of their own that can get pretty bright as well, so I don't think merely the brightness of a smartphone screen held by a passenger passes legal muster for "distraction".

[wanderingfool2]

25 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

So would the answer be to disable smartphones altogether when in a moving vehicle, passenger or not? Bear in mind that vehicles often come with in-cabin lights of their own that can get pretty bright as well, so I don't think merely the brightness of a smartphone screen held by a passenger passes legal muster for "distraction".

I'm not saying that we ban these kinds of things...I'm just saying that having a passenger playing solitaire could be viewed as being less distracting than hands free talking in the vehicle.  And for anyone arguing that it's a distraction even as a passenger is playing, it can be equally argued that multiple people playing with a phone is a distraction (specifically at night).  Driving with your cabin lights on can be a ticketable offense if the officer deems that it's affecting your ability to see (which on a dark night it would be).  I'm using the term distraction in a very liberal sense. 

 

I'm merely stating that we have phones that are now connected to the vehicle (which like it or not is also just as much of a distraction, given that talking with someone not in the vehicle actually tends to lead to worse driving than talking with someone in the vehicle).  Overall all I'm saying is that I'm not overly opposed to a passenger being able to play a game.  I mean phones are apparently the cause of 25% of the accidents currently, so one could easily argue that maybe we shouldn't allow cars to connect or that they should have a mechanism that prevents callings or texting while driving.

[DildorTheDecent]

Literally 1984.

[Kisai]

15 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

For starters, the Tesla’s display is fixed and always in view of the driver. How can a phone tell if its in the hands of a driver or passenger? “Sorry bus rider, or kid in the back seat, no phone for you!”
 

This is actually rather easy, and the tech exists. When the phone is moving, lock and dim the screen if the camera can not see the eyes of the person with the phone, and is not looking towards the phone.

 

There's also ways of detecting "walking" vs "driving" or "biking" by using the accelerometers. The only thing that's really hard to check for is driving/passenger-on-transit. You could tell the phone in advance that you're taking the bus/train by having the map running with a bus/train route navigation running. A car can't follow a bus route even if it wanted to because it doesn't stop at the stops. It only stops at traffic lights. 

 

Another way to solve the problem is to simply have all phones paired to the car, and when the car starts, have the phone prompt for the seat you're in, and which seats are allowed to control the climate control/radio/car-provided-internet-access. Realistically, this should be figured out by the car by using a seat sensor and nfc pings so that it knows if a phone is in the back seat or passenger side. If there is only one person in the car, then it knows it's the driver by default.

 

15 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

 

And second, auto makers are held to a higher standard of safety than smartphone makers. Apple and Samsung, for example, don’t owe a duty of care to drivers. Tesla, an auto manufacturer, does owe this duty of care. 

Indeed.

 

[Elijah Kamski]

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the mobile phone.

 

No longer do you need to take your car to your bed to watch 3AM YouTube!

XD