Tesla Party & Camper Mode Coming To Model S/3/X, + Games!

In a nod to the future of autonomous vehicles, Tesla is already starting to explore potential multimedia options for its vehicles. CEO Elon Musk confirmed last week that a handful of old-school Atari games will be included in the company’s highly anticipated version 9.0 firmware.

The addition of games is likely to only be available when the car is parked. Games would make a great option for anyone looking for something to help them pass the time while charging. I say this from the front seat of the CleanTechnica Tesla Model 3 as I charge at a ChargePoint station. The clean layout of the Model 3 and the landscape screen have always shouted out to me that the car was built with fully autonomous driving in mind. We should see one or more steps in that direction coming soon.

The horizontal screen would be perfect for watching movies with the seats reclined, streaming music, or even reading off of when driving is no longer the priority. For now, we’ll take what we can get to pass the time while charging (aside from working on CleanTechnica articles), but I see this as just the beginning of an entirely new multimedia opportunity for Tesla as it intelligently explores what customers want to do in the car while not driving. It’s simple logic to offer a variety of options that can be activated while charging as the logical sandbox for functionality that could be added later on while a car is driving itself.

Along the same vein, Tesla is also reportedly working on a party and camper mode for the car that would allow owners to utilize their vehicles for extended periods of time while it sits still. As things stand today, the vehicles time out after several minutes of inactivity, but the new setting would presumably allow the driver to override this setting, putting the vehicle into “camper/party” mode.

Version 9.0 of Tesla’s Autopilot is also expected to usher in the first of a series of long awaited “Full Self-Driving” features that will mark the start of Tesla’s much longer journey towards full autonomy. The feature has been available for owners to purchase for years now in new vehicles, but this would mark the first set of features actually pushed into production for Full Self-Driving cars.

Tesla has been criticized for selling the option to customers without having a firm timeline for its release, so the formal release of some features into customer cars would allay the concerns of drivers and critics in this regard to some degree or another. It depends on the features and the individual.

Featured image courtesy: Pexels