Elon Musk has spoken again – and what he said is that there os a possibility the infotainment system used by Tesla vehicles will support third-party apps in the future.
While recently talking on the Ride the Lightning podcast, Musk said that as more Tesla models hit the roads, the company may open up its infotainment system to outside developers.
“As our number of vehicles grow, it starts to potentially makes more sense to develop games and other applications for Tesla. We just need a lot of cars,” Musk said, adding that there needs to be “enough of an install base to warrant the effort” of developers building separate apps for Tesla vehicles.
As it stands, Tesla owners can entertain themselves with a plethora of infotainment functionalities unique to their vehicles. For example, games like Super Breakout, Missile Command, Asteroids, Lunar Lander, Centipede are all available for the Model 3, Model S, and Model X. Other services available include music streaming, books, podcasts, and navigation tools. There are even a handful of Easter eggs available, including the infamous ‘fart mode’ that, depending on where you stand, is either funny or plain nonsensical.
Gaming in a car may seem pretty wild, but Tesla isn’t the only car manufacturer exploring such features. Mercedes-Benz recently demonstrated the ability to play SuperTuxKart on its MBUX infotainment system while in the driver’s seat, using the steering wheel and pedals as controls. The German car manufacturer is even holding an In-Car Gaming Challenge for students, developers, designers, graduates and startup businesses to design games for the MBUX system.
Fully-autonomous vehicles still have way to go before reaching production, but we can rest easy knowing that when they do arrive, car manufacturers will offer a multitude of services to keep drivers vehicle occupants entertained.