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Tesla to remove video game while driving

Good news for cyclists sharing the road

Tesla has agreed to change a feature that allowed drivers play video games on the touch screen while the car is in motion, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration spokesperson confirmed on Thursday.

This followed a report in the New York Times that revealed you can play video games on your touch screen on the dash. After buying a Tesla Model 3 this summer, Vince Patton saw a YouTube clip highlighting a feature that took him by surprise. He saw three video games that could be played while driving, on the large touch screen on the front of the dashboard.

According to data from Transport Canada’s National Collision Database, distracted driving contributes to an estimated 21 percent of fatal collisions and 27 per cent of serious injury collisions. Those stats are part of an increasing trend of distracted driving-related collisions, going up from 16 per cent of fatal collisions and 22 per cent of serious injury collisions a decade earlier.

After the report, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began a probe into some Tesla models over the feature, known as Passenger Play, with a concern that it “may distract the driver and increase the risk of a crash.”

You can play video games on your dash while you’re driving your Tesla

The NHTSA began to investigate Tesla Model 3, S, X and Y cars from 2017 through 2022 that are equipped with the function.

In a statement, Tesla said that it is “changing the functionality of this feature and it will now be locked and unusable when the vehicle is in motion.”