US Auto Safety Regulator Investigates Tesla's Passenger Play Feature That Compromises Driving Safety

The Passenger Play feature from Tesla which is considered to interfere with driving safety. (photo: twitter)

JAKARTA - US auto safety regulators said on Tuesday, January 15 that they were seeking additional information from Tesla Inc regarding its investigation of 580,000 vehicles over the automaker's decision to allow games or games to be played by passengers on touchscreens or windshields.

In December, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened a preliminary evaluation of Tesla Model 3, S, X, and Y 2017-2022 vehicles for their "Passenger Play" feature that the agency said "could distract drivers and increase the risk of accidents."

NHTSA wants a record of any accident reports related to the feature and for Tesla to provide a chronology of events and studies that support its risk assessment "in the use of non-driving front seat-related tasks from in-vehicle based devices even if the tasks are intended only for passengers." front seat."

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters on the matter. The reason is that this feature is suspected to be able to interfere with the driver, even though they are not involved in playing the game on the windshield.

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NHTSA said last December that it had "confirmed that this capability has been available since December 2020 in Tesla 'Passenger Play' equipped vehicles." Previously, the game feature "only activated when the vehicle was in the parking lot". But there are some that can be used even when the car is driving on the highway.

On December 23, Tesla told NHTSA that it would stop allowing the video game to be played on vehicle screens while the car was moving, the agency said.

"Tesla notified us that a software update will lock the "Passenger Play" feature and render it unusable while the vehicle is in motion," NHTSA said.

NHTSA asked Tesla to answer questions on March 4 including providing "the number of trips in which game use occurred while the shift indicator while driving was also on" and including uses where vehicle sensors did not detect passengers in the front passenger seat. It also wants data where "the game is concurrent with a driver intervention act or an active safety measure."

The agency last August opened a safety investigation into 765,000 Tesla vehicles over its Autopilot driver assistance system after a series of accidents involving parked emergency systems and vehicles.

This initial evaluation is the first step before NHTSA decides whether to escalate the investigation to engineering analysis, which must be done before the agency can request a recall.

As of November 29, Mercedes-Benz Daimler had recalled 227 vehicles in the US due to a vehicle infotainment system that "may or may allow activation of television and internet screens while driving, which could cause nuisance to the driver."

In 2013, NHTSA issued guidelines asking automakers "to consider driver safety and distraction prevention into their design and adoption of in-vehicle infotainment devices."