"Following the opening of a preliminary evaluation of
Tesla's 'Passenger Play,' Tesla informed the agency that it is changing the
functionality of this feature," a spokesperson for the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration said in a statement emailed to AFP.
"In a new software update, 'Passenger Play' will now be
locked and unusable when the vehicle is in motion."
The agency had announced it had launched an investigation
into some 580,000 Tesla cars after the automaker's decision to allow drivers to
play on the entertainment system's touch screen while the vehicle was moving.
The affected models are the Model 3, S, X and Y.
The option to engage Passenger Play on the main display
during driving made drivers susceptible to distraction and raised the risks of
an accident, the NHTSA said.
It said earlier that it confirmed the gaming function has
been available since December 2020 in many Tesla vehicles, after only being
enabled in park mode on earlier autos.
NHTSA undertook the probe following a customer complaint
earlier this year.
"Why is a manufacturer allowed to create an inherently
distracting live video which takes over two-thirds of the screen which the
driver relies on for all vehicle information?," said a complaint from Lake
Oswego, Oregon.
Inattentive driving caused 3,142 fatal crashes in the United
States in 2019, according to the NHTSA
Despite various controversies, shares of Tesla have soared
over the last two years, making the company's chief Elon Musk the world's
richest person, according to Forbes.
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