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Tesla Is Adding Atari Games To the In-Car Display (theverge.com)
In the next software update for its vehicles, Tesla will include several playable Atari games as new Easter eggs. CEO Elon Musk said the update would be released in "about four weeks" and should include games like Pole Position, Tempest, and Missile Command. The Verge reports: Pole Position's controls will apparently be linked to the Tesla's actual steering wheel -- while the vehicle is stopped, Musk made clear. It goes without saying, but no one should be messing around with any of these when they're behind the wheel of a moving car. A much bigger deal for Tesla owners is that, according to Musk, software version 9.0 will begin to enable "full self-driving features" in eligible vehicles. The new update might be discussed further during Tesla's earnings call later today.
Now you can play frogger in ur Tesla while playing frogger with ur Tesla
What a shitty /. summary! Software easter eggs have to be hidden! That's why they're called easter eggs: because it takes some effort and luck to find them! If they're announced then they're features, and not easter eggs!
$11 billion in debt and they are working on this? What a pedo
... it *really* crashes.
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what would the faa say if flight controls where linked to some game?
Self driving software should NOT NOT NOT be linked to a game in any way.
Why would I want this? You have to be an idiot to want a Tesla.
job for brakes.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
Good point. This is another step in the wrong direction in taking driving seriously. Also, very expensive Atari gaming rig.
Set the car to hands-free Autopilot mode and play some games while stuck in traffic on the way home!
What could possibly go wrong . . . ?
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
Absolutely. Do you really want to teach your young children that the car is a video game console?
Good Lord! Let's hope Tesla never gets the rights to Carmageddon:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmageddon
If you die in your tesla can you go back to your last saved position?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Mr. Musk,
It is with mild amusement that I read your latest press release about allowing people to play video games on the Tesla console. Where this is a cool thing and the console is well suited for such entertainment applications I think Tesla needs to concentrate on building cars and stop with the new features.
I would suggest that a better enhancement might be system for mining crypto currency when a car not on the road. With as much processing power available in these fine machines, mining crypto would likely clear enough profit to pay the owner's gas (um... Electric) bill while it charges every night... But I've got to ask WHY? Please, can we just leave all these cool ideas for later?
IF Tesla doesn't stop this feature creep and finish engineering their assembly process for low cost, maximum output, the share holders like me are going to get upset. Come on.. Work on building and delivering cars, no more of this PR driven feature creep. Please sir, I need some profits from my investment and that's going to take a bunch cars to be built and sold. Remember when you promised you where doing that? I bet you do. That's the feature I really want from Tesla.
Signed, concerned share holder.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
It cheapens an expensive car
Musk would have to be stupid to think people would heed his 'warning' that they should not play games while driving.... so he disabled the games when the car is out of park, like every navigation console I have ever used in every other vehicle, right? It would be laughably simple for him to do. Any less and he is just daring people to play while driving.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Absolutely. Do you really want to teach your young children that the car is a video game console?
Good point.
Further, this is a complete waste of development effort. If there really are no new real features to be added, and the s/w devs are sitting around twiddling their thumbs until the next new feature set gets agreed, then for gawd's sake do something useful. Write further tests or docs, review the code, improve dev tools ... something of actual benefit rather than this crock of <ahem>
I'm trying to say this in a supportive manner as I'd love Tesla to succeed wildly.
that is not even my point.
My point is that self driving software needs to held to some like the faa software standards for autopilot software.
Not even that but when the car is stopped the control can change in to joystick mode??? What if some software falt makes that happen at speed when in non self mode?
No Grand Theft Auto?
Have gnu, will travel.
center screen is to near driver for it to have games on it. Maybe if it where back seat then go nuts with gameing.
Self driving software should not be linked to anything ancillary as you say, but hey, the internet is totally fine according to idiots at Tesla
the self driving liability issues should be bad for shareholders and with software with hidden games it's can be very damming in a bad crash say like when uber killed some one when there software failed.
would... you... like... to... play... a... game...?
>Let's play Carmageddon
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
So I am hitting 2 months with the Model 3 and must admit that the "newness" factor is really long lived with this car. For example, I had noticed that the steering wheel seemed to shake every once and a while. It did not seem like a serious "malfunction" but the other day I did Google the issue and realized I was really just experiencing haptic feedback for drifting out of my lane! Its these small, gradual and pleasant surprises that really make the car a lot of fun to own.
I must have been 3 when my family got me an Atari, and that was probably my first experience to an expansive and revolutionary new technology that seemed to grow along with its users. Consequently, it seems very fitting for Tesla cars to get Atari games.
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
The real easter egg will be the hidden doom module.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Musk wants to steal you money for a shit car, and then kill you in a traffic accident. He needs to be put in jail.
would like a good game of need for speed?
Ok, fess up, how many people of a certain age learned to drive playing Pole Position?
If i remember well, all those games use paddle controllers, so will map quite well to the steering wheel.
yep same as above.
Hot Pursuit sounds fun.
this could very well be some devs personal project, which he happened to be able to show to musk and maybe make a buck or so? you kindof have to give the benefit of the doubt on these kinds of things. others have done far more in their spare time.
Tesla's steering system is fairly conventional. Steering wheel turns a shaft that moves a rack and pinion. There's also an electric motor attached to the shaft for power steering and autopilot. Will the wheels scrub back and forth on the road when the game is being played? Tesla's system isn't "fly-by-wire".
The 8-bit graphics of Pole Position are exactly how Autopilot sees the world, especially when it crashes you into a center median barricade. I used to crash in Pole Position a lot in the 80s. Now Tesla owners can experience the same effects in the real world. Technology!
Ahhhj! You've figured it out!
The fully autonomous driving will be on Pole Position!
Way to sleuth the clues:)
The drivers ed teacher didn't like the whole "spin the steering wheel at 100 RPM" tactic when I tried it...
Seriously, they should stop chasing distractions like this and fix the damn media player in the car. Its quirky and buggy to the extent that its a constant frustration, and the v8 "major overhaul" just introduced regressions alongside a coat of UI polish.
Of course that won't make for flashy press releases, or news attractive to people who casually browse headlines. You have to actually own the car, and drive it regularly, for any of this to benefit you.
If you're going to add software...
..... SKYRIM on Tesla
But since they are about to release a new version of their software, with "full self-driving features", could you hook them up to make it play Pole Position by itself?
Now that I think of it, maybe that is how they train the self-driving.
Tesla already has a web browser, with Javascript enabled. The security wheels came off that one long ago.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
How am I supposed to focus on a game while the windshield is still transparent??
Great, if mobile phones aren't bad enough, now there will be even more distractions causing people to just sit when the light turns green, further adding to traffic problems.
Does this mean we will have a 30 car pile up on I-95 one day because someone was trying to get the high score on Pole Position?
Riiiiiiiiiiidge Raceeeeeeeer!
#DeleteFacebook
You can get substantial fine almost everywhere in the US by texting or talking on your cell phone while you drive, but apparently playing Frogger while you drive is OK. God bless America.
Crazy Taxi.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
why do you even get out of bed in the morning if you could break your neck just in that first step? why do anything if there is the slightest bit of risk involved? why change anything at all when we could just keep things the exact same forever and ever?
Your point is that you are trying to conflate the self driving side of the software and the existence of an easter-egg that requires the user to have the car stopped (aka speed = 0) in order to use the car's controls for the video game.
It is one thing to argue that the self driving feature should comply by FAA standards, although i dont know why you would argue that as autopilot on the ground seems like it would be much more complicated than in the air and thus be held to much higher standards.
Its another thing to argue that video game controls should not be linked to the physical controls of a vehicle, which given the right safety interlocks (ie speed = 0) should be a non issue.
Its a completely different thing to just assume that people are going to be turning on autopilot and then attempting to play a video game using the vehicles controls as the game input. I am pretty sure than several government agencies would have a conniption if that were even remotely possible and you can bet that they will be looking closely at Tesla as anyone holding a position against Tesla (other automotive manufacturers, investors, politicians, etc.) will be making sure that everything is scrutinized. No, your point was to use shitty logic to throw shade at Tesla based on your own preconceived notions of the company and what you think they are going to do.
So when you're not driving, you can pretend to drive, and when you *are* driving, you can set the car to drive itself.
What a time to be alive.
This is the perfect vehicle to drive the to the gym so you can walk on a treadmill.
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