The AMD microchips that Tesla’s in-car system features offer a power similar to that of a Sony PlayStation 5 consoleand in fact among the leisure offerings on board these electric vehicles is that passengers can entertain themselves with some video games, but now the founder and CEO of the company, Elon Musk, is more ambitious than that.
The options to run games in Tesla’s are only available when the car is completely stopped
Through his Twitter account, his usual media outlet and social network that he might be forced to buy, Musk has announced that Tesla is working on developing the capabilities needed to to be able to play games from the car itself to the games of the Steam online platform, at least in some of its titles.
We’re working through the general case of making Steam games work on a Tesla vs specific titles. Former is obviously where we should be long-term.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2022
The first games available from the large center screen located in the Tesla’s console, both as the car’s function control center and as an entertainment center, were no more than an Easter egg. It was in October 2018 when users of these cars discovered the presence of some classic video games from the Atari catalog.
Over time successive software updates added new titlesbut in 2022 Musk announced that in the future Tesla passengers would be able to play titles such as the recently released “Cyberpunk 2077” or “The Witcher”.
It was targeted as a “long-term” project and pointed specifically to titles available through the Steam platform, an online store that allows access to a huge catalog of titles from all studios and developers. Many of the games it contains are free but it also allows you to buy others or access digital copies of those already purchased in physical format.
What is certain is that at Tesla they seem to have gotten down to work and access to Steam games could be available as soon as this August. If so, this summer Tesla could already become a particular video game console, although with an important limitation, derived from the safety precautions at the wheel.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the U.S. agency that oversees road traffic safety, once prevented Tesla from offering some features in the on-board entertainment system while the vehicle is in motion. And one of them is to run video games.
Thus, these can only operate when the car is completely stoppedso that not even the passengers can activate it and its use is reduced to the moments when the car is parked or while the battery is being recharged.