Curious to see for himself, Patton drove his own 2021 Tesla Model 3 to an empty community college parking lot, activated a game called“I was just dumbfounded that, yes, sure enough, this sophisticated video game came up,” said Patton, a 59-year-old retired broadcast journalist who lives near Portland, Oregon., too, and was able to activate that game while driving. Later, he found he could browse the Internet while his car was moving.
On Wednesday, NHTSA confirmed that it’s looking into the matter. News of Patton’s complaint was first reported Tuesday by“We are aware of driver concerns and are discussing the feature with the manufacturer,” a NHTSA spokeswoman wrote in an email. “The Vehicle Safety Act prohibits manufacturers from selling vehicles with design defects posing unreasonable risks to safety.”
The government is looking into Tesla’s Autopilot partially automated driving system, as well as its “Full Self-Driving” software system, which is being tested by selected owners on public roads. In addition, as it increases scrutiny under US President Joe Biden, NHTSA is investigating over-the-Internet software updates that are intended to fix safety problems and Tesla battery fires.
The agency noted that crashes involving distracted drivers killed more than 3,100 people in 2019, representing about 9% of all US traffic deaths. But safety experts contend that distracted driving crashes are undercounted. Even if only a passenger is playing the game, Patton said, it can still be distracting to the driver because the game takes up about two-thirds of the touchscreen. This also makes it harder for the driver to see warnings and controls for windshield defrosters, he said.
“There’s little question that having a large screen next to the driver on which the driver, or a passenger, can play a video game while the vehicle is moving is an unreasonable risk to safety,” Levine wrote. “NHTSA’s recent statements would suggest this feature has been in violation of both the spirit and letter of NHTSA’s driver distraction guidelines and the law.”
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