Electric carmaker Tesla Inc will stop allowing video games to be played on vehicle screens while its cars are moving, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Thursday. The move follows an announcement by the NHTSA on Wednesday that it had opened a formal safety investigation on 580,000 Tesla vehicles sold since 2017 over the automaker’s decision to allow games to be played on the front center touchscreen while they are in motion. This functionality, referred to as “Passenger Play,” may distract the driver and increase the risk of a crash, the NHTSA has 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, a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement. “The NHTSA constantly assesses how manufacturers identify and safeguard against distraction hazards that may arise due to faults, misuse, or intended use of convenience technologies, including infotainment screens,” the agency said. Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Safety advocates have raised concerns that drivers may not pay attention on the road, especially when Tesla vehicles are operating in semi-autonomous mode known as Autopilot. A driver’s distraction – likely from a phone game application – was one of the causes of a fatal crash of a Tesla car operating in Autopilot in California in 2018, according to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board. The NHTSA in August opened a safety investigation on 765,000 Tesla vehicles over its Autopilot system after a series of crashes involving the system and parked emergency vehicles.
You May Also Like
Business
Activist investor Starboard Value has purchased a 6.5% stake in web services firm GoDaddy worth about $800 million, according to a regulatory filing with...
Business
Contact The Author Female employees at CNN are furious that chief spokesperson Allison Gollust is keeping her job after lying about her affair with...
Business
North Korean hackers managed to steal a fortune in cryptocurrency in 2021, according to the results of a recent study. Cybercriminals based in North...
Finance
For the best part of a decade, rock-bottom interest rates seemed like a fact of life in the euro zone—as did low inflation. Now...