US highway safety has concluded its investigation into Tesla’s policy of permitting passengers to utilize center touch displays to play video games while operating a vehicle.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Confirms Tesla’s Disabling of Passenger Play Function in Response to Distracted Driving Concerns.
Tesla’s Disables Passenger Play Feature
According to the NHTSA, Tesla complied with government demands by disabling the Passenger Play feature through an online software update in December 2021. This action was taken in response to fears of distracted driving associated with the function. The software upgrade affected over 580,000 Tesla cars from the model years 2017 to 2022.
Tesla announced that within a month of the software release, 97% of its vehicles had received the necessary update.
The government initiated an investigation in December 2021 after a Tesla owner reported that drivers could play games while the vehicle was in motion, raising concerns about driver distraction. The NHTSA noted that including irrelevant visual content within a driver’s field of view has the potential to increase visual and cognitive distraction.
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Ford Embraces Charging Technology for Next-Gen EVs
In response, Tesla argued that the Passenger Play function was intended for passenger use only and did not pose a significant distraction risk to drivers. The automaker claimed that no accidents were recorded during the year of using the technology.
The NHTSA analyzed Tesla’s data from the period when Passenger Play was operational and concluded that the function was enabled for only a small fraction of total vehicle journeys. However, the authorities did not specify the number of journeys in which the technology was used while the cars were in motion without passengers.
In other Tesla news, Ford has decided to incorporate Tesla’s charging connector into its next-generation electric vehicles (EVs). This will allow Ford EV owners to utilize Tesla’s Supercharger network for battery charging without the need for an adaptor.
Ford is the first major automaker to include Tesla charging connections in its full EV lineup, marking a significant advancement for the company. At present, all Tesla cars use the same type of charging port. However, Ford’s upcoming vehicles will also adopt the North American Charging Standard (NACS), replacing their current Combined Charging System (CCS).
Nonetheless, it’s important to note that Tesla’s Supercharging network exclusively supports its own NACS charging technology. Owners of non-Tesla electric vehicles who wish to utilize Tesla charging stations will still require an appropriate adapter.
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