U.S. opens probe into Tesla letting drivers play video games

So what! In Japan drivers watch TV while driving. For some unfathomable reason, this is OK, while speaking on a cell phone is illegal.

So what! In Japan drivers watch TV while driving. For some unfathomable reason, this is OK, while speaking on a cell phone is illegal.

Well, as long as they are listening to the tv and only watching it while stopped I dont see a problem.

I drive 5 hours or more in Tokyo every day and I cant even imagine spending all this time in the car without the 2 iphones in front of me (navi + Youtube playing watch later vids), it would be ridiculous to waste this much time, indeed I think if every driver had something to do while carefully driving I think the traffic in Tokyo would be so much more peaceful. I drive all around the country and this is the only city you see so many aggressive drivers, you look in the mirror and all you see is upset/angry looking faces, because everyone is bored/not enjoying the moment/not learning anything on their way home.

That's why you got to make your own many playlist and buy Sony walkman and just listen to the songs on your long drive.

IMO, lacking traditional physical control switches, etc. on the dashboard and not having the monitor in the driver's line of sight is dangerous. Eyes should be kept on the road. Tesla cut too many corners by stuffing everything into that monitor panel.

This issue with Teslas is a five-minute-fix for Tesla engineers who absolutely know how to stop it: Eye trackers built into the gauge cluster in front of the driver. If a game is open and the driver's eyes are focusing on the game display for X% of time while driving and there is no passenger, the software should disable gameplay.

Eye tracking is accurate enough to know exactly where someone's eyes are looking - there's enough accuracy to be able to determine if a driver is watching the navigation section or the game section.

Autonomous driving or not, drivers should be watching the roads since no level of automation currently available can prevent all accidents, where someone watching the road in addition to automation may be able to prevent some accidents the automation alone could not.

BertieWoosterToday  07:05 am JST

So what! In Japan drivers watch TV while driving. For some unfathomable reason, this is OK, while speaking on a cell phone is illegal.

Yes, see it all the time, everywhere. However it is illegal for the TV to operate when the vehicle is in motion and it is inhibited from doing so but it's a very easy change to make to allow the TV to used when not stationary.

While the driver plays video games when the vehicle is moving, what could possibly go wrong?

good! distracted driving is extremely dangerous. cough TVs in Japanese cars cough

That's why you got to make your own many playlist and buy Sony walkman

The compression algorithm used by things like a Walkman or similar removes all the low and some of the good mid range sounds from the songs. Ok for ear buds but a good car stereo can easily reproduce the sound lost from the compression algorithm. The difference in sound quality is not trivial either. You play compressed music on a good stereo, even in a car, and it sounds distant and tinny, nothing like a good CD or high definition radio signal sounds like.

I know some major metropolitan areas where driving is treated like a video game. It seems more like auto hockey sometimes.

There's no reason why the monitor in the Tesla should be mounted there, and VW/Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz deliberately avoid this with split monitors with one in front of the driver (as do most Japanese models except the Prius) for essential information. Playing games on a generic "TV monitor" in a Tesla is just that company trying to 'flex' - and failing while doing it.

All of this simply serves to confirm my choices to never buy a car with a video screen. I rent enough cars with "infotainment" systems to know I don't want it in my own car.