Elon Musk considers ‘Mario Kart’ game to play while driving a Tesla
Musk's idea to play game 'while driving safely' comes just a few months after an investigation revealed a fatal Tesla crash in 2018 was caused by the driver playing a video game
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Elon Musk has suggested introducing an augmented reality game similar to Pokemon Go that Tesla owners could play while driving.
The Tesla boss initially tweeted "Minecraft has amazing legs," in reference to the hugely popular video game, before speculating whether it would be possible to develop games for the electric cars.
He then called out to his 33 million followers to see if any were able to integrate games through Tesla's operating system, which could be displayed on the vehicles' 12.3-inch LCD screen.
"Anyone think they can get a good multiplayer Minecraft working on Teslas?" he tweeted. "Or maybe create a game that interacts virtually with reality like Pokemon Go while driving safely? Like a complex version of Pac-man or Mario Kart?"
Twitter users were divided in their response to Mr Musk's tweets, with some quick to point out the risks involved in developing such features for the electric cars.
"That's a dangerous game, if you are driving you should be driving and nothing else, not playing games, not watching films, not on a phone," one user replied. "You are risking your own and other people's lives being that irresponsible."
Another user claimed to have been hit by a driver who was playing Pokemon Go, stating: "To be frank, 'while driving safely,' just isn't enough for me."
Among those replying was Minecraft technical director Nathan Adams, who wrote: "Send me a Tesla and I'll see what I can do."
EA product manager Bret Hoffman suggested that Minecraft was not best suited for Tesla but claimed that "a driving version of Pokemon Go-like mechanics would work".
Any in-car game could prove particularly problematic, given that an accident investigation into a fatal Tesla crash in 2018 revealed that the driver was playing a video game on his smartphone at the time of the incident.
When the results of the investigation were published earlier this year, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) warned that any distractions from driving should be avoided, even if the vehicle is semi autonomous.
"If you own a car with partial automation, you do not own a self-driving car," NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said in a statement at the time. "This means that when driving in the supposed 'self-driving' mode... you cannot play video games."
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent about whether it plans to pursue Mr Musk's idea.
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