It’s the age-old question when it comes to battery-powered appliances: what do you do while it’s charging? Granted, you can use many appliances while they are charging. Mobile phones are the most obvious example. These days no wants to put their phone down, even it means using it with the charging cord plugged in. But things get a little more complicated when electric cars are concerned. You wouldn’t want to go floundering off with the charging cable trailing behind, now, would you?
So what does Tesla – the pioneer of the modern day electric car – do about it? They let you play games on the car’s infotainment system itself. Those huge screens have to be put to good use somehow. Tesla Arcade now has a number of games which can be played inside the car while you’re waiting, most notably Cuphead. Be warned, though. Hitting the road after a frustrating session of the notoriously difficult game would not be the best idea.
But playing games with a controller is old-fashioned, and knowing Tesla, they were going to put their own spin on it. So in a new announcement made by Tesla founder Elon Musk at E3, Tesla will be introducing another way to play games inside their cars – using the steering wheel itself.
Video courtesy: IGN
Now, the use of steering wheels to play video games is not something groundbreaking. Simulators have been around for ages. But this is not exactly a simulator we’re talking about, you’re using the steering wheel of an actual car, along with the brake pedal. Granted, it still hasn’t been released for consumers yet and so far the only available game is a specially made version of ‘Beach Buggy Racing 2’. But the demo shows that the tech is stable and fun enough that it should be making its way to all Tesla cars soon. Oh, and the gas pedal is not involved in any way in the gaming sessions, for obvious reasons.
