With the accelerated advancements in self-driving technology, it is only a matter of time before in-car entertainment is just as important as the working parts under the hood of a vehicle. When vehicles reach a truly autonomous level, ‘drivers’ will soon be left to entertain themselves during rides to and from their destination and Tesla is a front runner in in-car entertainment. Some may even think Tesla CEO Elon Musk is getting ahead of himself as he pushes to have more in-car games and entertainment in Tesla vehicles. A ‘critical’ feature in the future of self-driving.
Tesla began pushing a new software update last weekend. The “fire” update was teased by Musk in the weeks prior to the push and came before the end of the year as promised.
The update consists of a few user interface changes, 3 new in-car video games, and a new ‘Boombox’ feature that allows owners to use external speakers to play custom sounds.
Following the update, Musk went to Twitter to reiterate the importance of in-car games and entertainment as they will be “critical” once full autonomy is reached:
According to Musk, Tesla will be bringing an online multiplayer version of Polytopia, which was released in the recent update. Musk also asked what Tesla should do with in-car gaming once drivers don’t have to focus on operating their vehicles:
Tesla’s current in-car video games can only be enjoyed while the car is safely parked.
Although Musk did receive some good suggestions, Twitter users were quick to fault the CEO as he previously predicted Tesla would have “1 million robotaxis by the end of 2020.” Some believe Tesla should continue focusing on technology behind autonomous driving instead of silly in-car games. However, it’s pretty clear that Musk’s in-car video game infatuation isn’t going anywhere as Tesla has a team of software engineers working on video games in Washington and is in the process of building a similar team in Texas.
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