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Shortly after purchasing a Tesla Model 3 this summer, Vince Patton YouTube clip Highlighting one feature that surprised him: three video games playable on the large touchscreen mounted in front of the dash while driving on the road.

“I thought that absolutely couldn’t be true,” said Mr Patton, who is retired from Lake Oswego, Ore.

But he tried it in a parking lot and managed to play a game of solitaire on the Model 3 on the go. “I just did it for about five seconds and then I turned it off,” he said. “I am stunned. To me, it seems inherently dangerous.”

The automaker added the games to an over-the-air software update that shipped to most of its cars this summer. It can be played by a driver or a passenger in the driver’s full field of view, raising new questions about whether Tesla is compromising on safety in its rush to add new technologies and features to its cars.

“It’s definitely a huge concern that it plays in the driver’s eyes,” said Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, which coordinates the state’s efforts to promote safe driving.

Tesla’s Autopilot system, which can steer, slow down and accelerate a car on its own, has been around for several years. Criticized by security experts because it allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel for extended periods of time, even if it is not necessary. And it lacks an effective tool to keep drivers’ eyes on the road.

The combination of hands-free driving and drivers looking away from the road has been linked to at least 12 traffic deaths since 2016 in Tesla cars operating in Autopilot mode, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Mr Adkins said the addition of video games “begs NHTSA to provide some guidance and regulation”.

Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk did not respond to several emails asking about new video games and whether they could compromise security.

Distracted driving is the main cause of increased traffic deaths in the United States. According to the estimates of the Ministry of Transport, 20,160 people died in traffic accidents in the first six months of this year. This was the highest total since 2006, up 18.4 percent from the first half of 2020.

Steve Kiefer, a senior executive at General Motors, said that about 10 percent of traffic deaths are officially due to driver inattention. head of a foundation Dedicated to tackling distracted driving. But he and other safety experts believe the true figure is much higher because, they say, crash investigations often ignore distraction when naming other causes, such as reckless driving.

“I think the number is closer to 50 percent,” Mr. Kiefer said.

The Kiefer Foundation is dedicated to his son, Mitchel, who was killed at the age of 18 when a distracted driver rear-ended his car on a Michigan highway in 2016.

Distracted driving results from activities that take drivers’ hands off the steering wheel, take their eyes off the road, or distract them from the driving task. It’s often linked to smartphone use, such as texting or emailing while behind the wheel, but drivers sometimes read books or put on makeup. Some states prohibit hand holding of cell phones while driving. Automakers, Apple and Google, have developed in-car software to make it easier to use voice commands to send text messages and make phone calls while on the go, hands-free.

Automakers have also added mechanisms to reduce possible distraction from front seat screens. Stellantis – formerly Fiat Chrysler – offers an entertainment system that can play DVDs on the front screen, but it gets dark if the car leaves the parking lot. Many navigation systems do not allow manual entry of addresses while a car is in motion. Mazda vehicles prohibit the use of most instrument cluster displays while in motion.

GM’s Super Cruise system, which can steer and brake and allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel, has an infrared camera to follow the driver’s eyes. If they veer off the road, Super Cruise will issue a warning or shut down and hands back to the driver.

“We feel that with driver tracking and eye tracking, these features can be implemented quite safely,” said Mr Kiefer, who manages GM’s international operations.

Some Tesla cars have simpler cameras that face the driver, but the cameras detect less in the dark and don’t follow the gaze exactly. Four years ago, after investigating a fatal Autopilot accident, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that Tesla add an infrared camera to improve driver monitoring, but the company did not do so.

“It’s incredibly frustrating,” said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the safety board. “We’re trying to warn the public and tell Tesla, ‘Hey, you need to take some safety precautions. But they didn’t.”

The safety board investigates transportation accidents and can recommend measures to improve safety, but it has no power to compel companies to take action. NHTSA serves this role.

NHTSA has issued guidelines to automakers saying that any in-car entertainment devices should be designed in such a way that the driver cannot use them “to perform naturally distracting secondary tasks while driving.”

Until this summer, video games in Tesla’s software suite — there were more than a dozen — were only playable when a car was parked. That changed when the 2021.12.25.6 update was teleported to Tesla vehicles. Solitaire added; a jet fighter game, Sky Force Reloaded; and The Battle of Polytopia: Moonrise, a strategy game of conquest. Mr Patton said he had access to all three of them while his car was in motion and filed a complaint with NHTSA via his website.

In a warning before the game begins, Tesla points to its awareness that solitaire can be played while the car is in motion: “Solitaire is a game for everyone, but playing while the car is in motion is only for passengers.” A button asks for confirmation that the player is a passenger, but a driver can play by simply tapping it.

Inside second YouTube video, another Tesla owner shows how the game can be played while the car is in motion. “This is pretty dangerous,” says the video owner. “I’m sure someone will use Autopilot and play solitaire while on Autopilot. Note that, Tesla.”