Elon Musk said he will integrate the PC gaming platform Steam into Tesla cars, promising the test could take place in August.
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| Tesla users can soon experience PC games in their cars. Photo: Tesla |
On July 16, the account TeslaOwnersSV posted a test video of some Tesla car games with the console handle and the car's own steering wheel. "Do you know your car is a gaming machine. My kids love the games on it. Tesla should turn into a four-wheeled smartphone, Elon Musk," this account commented on Twitter.
A day later, Musk replied: "We are making progress on Steam integration. Maybe a demo will appear next month." Steam is the world's most popular game app store for PC.
Tesla models are equipped with a large touch screen for control and display. The library of car games is quite small, only about 20 games through Tesla Arcade and most of them are old games from the 1980s.
Musk once promised to "bring the world of PC gaming" to the car when he showed off the Cyberpunk 2077 model in 2019, followed by the Model S Plaid in June 2021. He also claims the AMD graphics card for this vehicle has the same performance as the PlayStation 5 console.
In February, Musk said Tesla's long-term focus was "to make Steam games work in cars", rather than integrating specific and fixed games as it is now. However, most of his goals have not yet come to fruition.
Experts say that Tesla shaking hands with Valve is worth waiting for. Steam, a platform owned by Valve, is currently the world's largest PC game distribution channel, offering 226,000 games and capturing 75% of the $30 billion market. However, the company will face a big barrier because these types of games require devices with powerful configuration, while the space in the car is not fully suitable for gaming.
Playing games in the car is also limited. In December 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the US suspended the Passenger Play feature on Tesla vehicles, and conducted a safety investigation. In March, Tesla filed a complaint with NHTSA but has not yet received a response.
Via Fortune