Live data from Hacker News

Tesla bows to pressure, stops allowing drivers to play video games while driving

theguardian.com

71–80 of 123 posts

Re: Tesla bows to pressure, stops allowing drivers to play video games while driving

#71
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your eyes aren't on the road, you aren't driving. I have zero sympathy for any of the edge cases people tend to bring up except checking your speed. Just drive the car. Take your tech-addled brains out of dopamine acquisition mode for the duration of the drive, then have a big 'ol binge at the end if you must. It's such trivial things that people risk their lives for too. A sort of trashy naivety. Like smoking at…

>If your eyes aren't on the road, you aren't driving. >I have zero sympathy for any of the edge cases people tend to bring up except checking your speed. You're saying the speedometer is the only instrument that needs to be scanned regularly? I would've said that the speedometer really isn't needed - if you go with traffic and don't hang out in the passing lane, you're never going to get in trouble. It's a lot more i…

> It's a lot more important to me to know if I've lost oil pressure or am overheating.

> And if the HVAC controls are unnecessary to mess with while driving, they are still not an "edge case". Nor is the radio.

I forgot to address these sorry.

I've driven some pants cars in my time so I get it, but I'd say you be the judge of just how distracted you are with mechanical worries and if that's a safe amount or not.

I think HVAC being on tactile controls makes the difference here, but ultimately you could check them when you've stopped if it's too much of a hassle. Sometimes I try to get it set, but can't figure it out quickly, so give up and just set it at the next point I'm idling.

Re: Tesla bows to pressure, stops allowing drivers to play video games while driving

#72

What about the idea that, as a customer who bought and owns something, you should have control over that thing, not the other way around? I am not saying this is the stronger argument. It's still an argument, though, and it surprised me to find this sentiment missing from the comments (granted, we're at only 7 comments right now). Why would something we want applied to smartphones and PCs not apply to cars?

How do you feel about the enforcement of the use of safety belts?

Re: Tesla bows to pressure, stops allowing drivers to play video games while driving

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate touchscreens in cars, but I'll give Tesla the fact that their touchscreen is a modern screen that's not a complete piece of crap to interact with. When phones can run at 30 fps and have no noticeable lag, it's infuriating to switch to a car which stutters on some ugly, unnecessary graphics and takes 0.25 seconds to respond to a touch input. Not to mention the whole "you're supposed to be driving a car" aspect.

You phone doesn't have to survive 125C for ten years of continual vibration.

It doesn't. If you can't provide an adequate user experience free of large input delays, you should have never installed a touchscreen in the first place. Infotainment systems have gotten less bad, but I haven't seen notable advancement in reducing time spent with eyes off of the road the way a physical button or knob does.

Re: Tesla bows to pressure, stops allowing drivers to play video games while driving

#74
Time and again this company proves that it still doesn't realise what cars currently are, including the ones they try to make. Maybe they should just not release this stuff until they actually have a really, really reliable level 5 autonomy.

Re: Tesla bows to pressure, stops allowing drivers to play video games while driving

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that it's very hard to accidentally kill a family by messing with your PC or smartphone, assuming you're not doing it while driving. Your own safety is your own responsibility and if you want to try for a Darwin award you should be allowed to, but you're not the likely victim of something goes wrong. Cars are inherently dangerous, mostly to the people around you. Modern car safety makes sure you can…

On behalf of the entire aftermarket and performance tuning community: "fuck you". We have minimum requirements for licensing, but otherwise we still have the freedom. Of course you are still liable for any damages caused, but that's called personal responsibility.

My impression of the aftermarket and performance tuning community so far has been that they are a bunch of annoying individuals making cars noisier and more obnoxious than they already are.

This comment seems to confirm my biases.

Re: Tesla bows to pressure, stops allowing drivers to play video games while driving

#76

It seems like they could’ve used the occupancy sensor to detect a passenger. A passenger playing a game on the screen which are also where your only instruments are located seems like an unnecessary added distraction so I’d say they made the right call.

I tried playing a game while in FSD and the cabin camera is super sensitive when a game is open, when I reach my hand for the screen the car starts beeping and flashing warnings for me to pay attention to the road.

Why, why do they even offer games on the move if they (correctly) have such watchdogs?

Makes me think of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TCeR_SWZM0, just adjust Chandler's line to "0-60 in 3 seconds, top speed of 160mph, 500 mile range!"

Re: Tesla bows to pressure, stops allowing drivers to play video games while driving

#77
post #74

Time and again this company proves that it still doesn't realise what cars currently are, including the ones they try to make. Maybe they should just not release this stuff until they actually have a really, really reliable level 5 autonomy.

That's exactly why Tesla are so good at what they do! I've had VW , BMW and Ford rental cars in the last year and they are literally stuck in the dark ages when it comes to on car entertainment and the things that just work and are very responsive in a Tesla.

Re: Tesla bows to pressure, stops allowing drivers to play video games while driving

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried playing a game while in FSD and the cabin camera is super sensitive when a game is open, when I reach my hand for the screen the car starts beeping and flashing warnings for me to pay attention to the road.

Why, why do they even offer games on the move if they (correctly) have such watchdogs? Makes me think of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TCeR_SWZM0 , just adjust Chandler's line to "0-60 in 3 seconds, top speed of 160mph, 500 mile range!"

It supposed to be for road trips and the like, your passenger could play a game to occupy themselves, and once FSD is out of beta (if it will ever be) the driver too.

Re: Tesla bows to pressure, stops allowing drivers to play video games while driving

#79
post #74

Time and again this company proves that it still doesn't realise what cars currently are, including the ones they try to make. Maybe they should just not release this stuff until they actually have a really, really reliable level 5 autonomy.

That's exactly why Tesla are so good at what they do! I've had VW , BMW and Ford rental cars in the last year and they are literally stuck in the dark ages when it comes to on car entertainment and the things that just work and are very responsive in a Tesla.

Why wouldn’t you just use CarPlay or Android auto?

Re: Tesla bows to pressure, stops allowing drivers to play video games while driving

#80
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They presumable thinking was that autopilot/fsd would be driving the car so the driver could play games. Arrgh. It was a feature for the passenger to play games while preserving the driving UI. Absolutely no one intended for this to be used by drivers. There isn't even any evidence of a driver being caught doing this. The coverage is basically clickbait, and you appear to have bought it exactly as it was intended.…

Not seeing how this could be clickbait or even misleading. No one had to intend anything, and there doesn't have to be evidence of drivers doing anything. The NHTSA is investigating to see if they have to enforce some laws, and that made Tesla pivot. Also the rule seems to be that you can bring a distraction into a car but you can't build the distraction into the car. Which seems totally reasonable to me. I mean, eve…

> Not seeing how this could be clickbait or even misleading.

The upthread comment was from someone who clearly assumed that this was intended as a driver feature, even to the extent of supposing that it was designed to be used under autonomous control. And that's clearly not the case.

That mistake is a direct result of headlines like the one here, which talk about "allowing drivers" to play games. It's technically true, but it leads to the wrong conclusion. And that's the intent!

Post reply on HN