Tesla has decided to make changes to its Passenger Play
feature that allowed games to be played on its touchscreen while the vehicle is
in motion.
It trails an inquiry launched by the US National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The agency said it had been informed by Tesla that a
software update would disengage the feature while driving.
Tesla had met criticism that the feature was risky.
The New York Times reports that Tesla had contacted to NHTSA
directly. The agency has told that "Passenger Play will now be protected
and unusable when the vehicle is in motion".
Tesla has not given any formal statement on the matter.
In the inquiry, made earlier this week, the NHTSA said that
Passenger Play "may sidetrack the driver and increase the risk of a
crash".
The ability to play games on the car's touchscreen was not meant
for drivers, and asked the person playing to confirm they were a passenger, even
though, there was nothing to stop a driver playing it.
Initially the feature only works when the car was not moving,
but this was altered in December 2020 to allow gameplay when the car was
moving.
This change was noticed by one Tesla owner, Vince Patton,
who filed a criticism with the NHTSA describing it as "recklessly
negligent".
When an inquiry is made, the NHTSA found that the feature
"may distract the driver and increase the risk of a crash".
The rules say that in-car devices have to be disconnected so
that they cannot be used by the driver "to achieve inherently off-putting
secondary tasks while driving".
This month, it is reported that 3,142 road deaths in 2019
were done by distracted drivers.
NHTSA, in August has
launched an inquiry into Tesla's Autopilot system after a dozen cars using the
feature crashed into parked emergency cars.
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