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

theguardian.com

91–100 of 123 posts

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

#91
post #85

This is the kind of situation where there should not be any action described in any other terms than the hammer coming down hard . Saying there was pressure just makes it sound like regulators are completely impotent.

Given what Tesla has said publicly about their cars/software and the response of regulators, I would say impotent is pretty accurate.

Yeah, sadly I think that is the case.

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

#92
post #89

I think what they did was the same as Waze. It warns against playing while driving and asks you to confirm that you’re the passenger. In other words, the software treats you as an adult. Someone who lease correct me if that is not how it was implemented. I’ve never tried to play a game while driving, for obvious reasons. If we need software to kindergarten us against endangering ourselves and others, we have much big…

>If we need X to kindergarten us against endangering ourselves and others

This sentence is confusing to me - at the risk of sounding curt, we obviously do need to protect people from idiots. Given a game to play while driving, some people will. The more convenient and present it is, the more people will do it. I'm not sure how one could formulate an argument that these people don't exist. The key here is of course that they endanger others - if it were just themselves, the conversation would be much more subjective.

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

#93
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define focus-drawing, though? Radio doesn't count? Full-screen climate control? Album art? Web browser? Pairing a bluetooth device? Hell, even having a glove box on the other side of the cabin is a distraction. The car is filled with distractions already, and we accept that it's broadly safe even if some drivers are distracted[1]. Why is this one in particular such a big deal for everyone, except for the somewhat obv…

Something moving with high frequency in the peripheral vision would be mighty distracting. I did not know Teslas allow you to browse Web while driving, this also looks very distracting, the other things you listed - not much.

It was Solitaire, FWIW, not Sonic the Hedgehog. The list of Passenger Play games was curated. Which is another fact that would seem to be reasonable to have included in the reporting, but was suspiciously absent.

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

#94
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something moving with high frequency in the peripheral vision would be mighty distracting. I did not know Teslas allow you to browse Web while driving, this also looks very distracting, the other things you listed - not much.

It was Solitaire, FWIW, not Sonic the Hedgehog. The list of Passenger Play games was curated. Which is another fact that would seem to be reasonable to have included in the reporting, but was suspiciously absent.

https://youtu.be/jKzHvIXT3Bc?t=81 looks a bit more like Sonic the Hedgehog than Solitire to me tbqh. Curation does not seem to be relevant. Why do I care if the driver that runs the red light is playing/being distracted by a game that have been curated, is he going to cause less damage because of this somehow?

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

#95
post #89

I think what they did was the same as Waze. It warns against playing while driving and asks you to confirm that you’re the passenger. In other words, the software treats you as an adult. Someone who lease correct me if that is not how it was implemented. I’ve never tried to play a game while driving, for obvious reasons. If we need software to kindergarten us against endangering ourselves and others, we have much big…

You really don’t see a difference between manufacturer installed and advertised feature, on a main screen in the car, that also contains legally mandated functions like speedometer VS 3rd party app on a 3rd party accessory?

Especially if that feature comes from a company that’s known to overhype their self driving abilities?

Comparing that to kindergarten from software is like complaining that when you build new house you need to put right electrical cables in the wall. And that just a sticker on the outlet that says “use only for table lamb with 1 led light” should be enough.

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

#96

When I first heard about video games in Teslas, my first thought was about Ender’s Game. Will there be a time where self-driving cars are piloted/assisted by players of massive online gaming platforms? It’s been shown that monitoring a vehicle that is mostly driving itself is not an easy task for humans. But if you gamify it and add several layers of redundancy (multiple people effectively monitoring the same vehicle…

I think it was ACE magazine in the 1980s that always rated its games by "Improvements through improper play". e.g. could that racing game be made more fun by, instead of racing, turning around on the starting grid and ploughing into the entire field of cars at the end of lap 1?

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

#97
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was Solitaire, FWIW, not Sonic the Hedgehog. The list of Passenger Play games was curated. Which is another fact that would seem to be reasonable to have included in the reporting, but was suspiciously absent.

https://youtu.be/jKzHvIXT3Bc?t=81 looks a bit more like Sonic the Hedgehog than Solitire to me tbqh. Curation does not seem to be relevant. Why do I care if the driver that runs the red light is playing/being distracted by a game that have been curated, is he going to cause less damage because of this somehow?

Arrgh! That's not the feature! That story showed shots of the normal games in the car that work when it's parked! That car wasn't moving! You can't play those games (Cupheads seems to ahve been shown) when it is moving!

They didn't show you the games you could actually play, they showed you what they thought would make you upset. And it did. Seriously, the whole media ecosystem in this space is one intentional deception after another. Do you really not see that?

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

#98
post #89

I think what they did was the same as Waze. It warns against playing while driving and asks you to confirm that you’re the passenger. In other words, the software treats you as an adult. Someone who lease correct me if that is not how it was implemented. I’ve never tried to play a game while driving, for obvious reasons. If we need software to kindergarten us against endangering ourselves and others, we have much big…

The problem isn't that the software is overprotective.

But that these companies specifically (fraudulently) market these assisted driving capabilities as providing more safety / autonomy than they actually do.

By giving these features names like "Autopilot" when it's just L2 for example.

It isn't the drivers, but rather the companies that need to be "kindergartened". Or in my view simply shut down by this point.

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

#99
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://youtu.be/jKzHvIXT3Bc?t=81 looks a bit more like Sonic the Hedgehog than Solitire to me tbqh. Curation does not seem to be relevant. Why do I care if the driver that runs the red light is playing/being distracted by a game that have been curated, is he going to cause less damage because of this somehow?

Arrgh! That's not the feature! That story showed shots of the normal games in the car that work when it's parked! That car wasn't moving! You can't play those games (Cupheads seems to ahve been shown) when it is moving! They didn't show you the games you could actually play, they showed you what they thought would make you upset. And it did. Seriously, the whole media ecosystem in this space is one intentional decept…

Even if it's just the Solitaire, as you claim, it's still something that should not be playing in the car if it's anything like Windows game with the same name, where big, high contrast cards are moving around. Nor should be the web browser accessible.

There is no justification for having these stupid features in the car other than marketing. Tesla should stick to the "Fart mode" and other such gimmicks, which do not endanger other people on the road and give enough for the fans to talk about the "superior technologies".

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

#100

Which brings up a fun question; At which point does pressing buttons on a screen to play a video game while driving cause just as much distraction as pressing buttons on a screen to manage your windshield wipers / drive mode / HVAC / windows? There used to be a lot of crashes attributed to "playing with the radio" in the 90's / 00's. Maybe all those buttons on the wheel and a display centered in the drivers cone of v…

I hate the Tesla Model 3 touchscreen. No muscle memory. No haptic feedback. Using it almost constantly causes attention problems.

If it weren't for the ability of the car to alert lane departures, cars braking ahead of you, etc., I likely would have had many accidents already, just using the touch screen for things should be physical controls.

Best bet is to engage autopilot then do whatever you gotta do.

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