After the federal authorities finished an inquiry into a feature known as “Passenger Play” that allowed games to be played on displays while moving, Tesla was able to avoid issuing a recall for its cars.
The probe began in December 2021 as a result of customer complaints about Tesla drivers using live games and the internet while their cars were moving. As the name implies, the Passenger Play option was intended for the usage of passengers solely.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of USA completed the inquiry involving more than 500,000 Tesla vehicles.
During the initial inquiry, it was found that users who attempted to play games via Passenger Play were faced with an alert saying that only passengers had the right to play while the car was in motion. Users were then required to push a button to authenticate that they were actually passengers, despite the fact that drivers could do the same thing with ease.
Following the investigation, Tesla was swift to make modifications, eliminating the feature via a software update within a month. The company said that by the beginning of 2022, 97 per cent of its vehicles had received the software update.
Additionally, according to the company, there have been a few instances where Passenger Play was in use while the car was being driven. It was also discovered that almost one-third of these incidents happened when there was no passenger in the car.
The NHTSA has stated that it is still willing to act if a safety-related fault is found in the future.