Video game developer David Doe established the Gamers 4 Croydon party late last year to try to unseat the 51-year-old Mr Atkinson at the South Australian elections on the weekend and raise awareness of the R18+ issue.Īlthough Gamers 4 Croydon had little impact on the poll (receiving just 3.7 per cent of the vote in Croydon and 0.8 per cent in the Legislative Council) Mr Atkinson suffered a 12.4 per cent swing against him in his safe Labor seat of Croydon. Last year six games were refused classification for exceeding the limits of the MA15+ rating, effectively banning their sale in Australia.
Tesla says neither system can drive vehicles and that drivers must be ready to intervene at all times.Australia is the only democracy in the western world not to have an adults-only rating for video games.
It’s also looking into the performance of Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” software after getting a complaint that it nearly caused a crash.
NHTSA already is investigating why Tesla’s “Autopilot” partially automated driving system keeps crashing into stopped emergency vehicles, and it has inquired about why Tesla didn’t file recall documents when it did an over-the-air internet update in an effort to address the safety problem.
The issue was corrected by updating a Mercedes server. The automaker said it intended to disable the features while the cars are in motion. In the Mercedes case, drivers could browse the internet or watch television while the cars were moving. Most automakers disable front touch screens while vehicles are moving.
“Creating a dangerous distraction for the driver is recklessly negligent.”Įarlier in December, Mercedes-Benz issued a recallfor a similar issue caused by a computer configuration error, raising questions about whether Tesla was being allowed to do something that other automakers are not. “NHTSA needs to prohibit all live video in the front seat and all live interactive web browsing while the car is in motion,” Patton wrote in his complaint. So he filed the complaint early last month. “Somebody’s going to get killed,” he said. Patton, who loves his car and says he has nothing against Tesla, worries that drivers will play games and become dangerously distracted. Later, he found he could browse the internet while his car was moving. He tried Solitaire, too, and was able to activate that game while driving. “I was just dumbfounded that, yes, sure enough, this sophisticated video game came up,” said Patton, a 59-year-old retired broadcast journalist who lives near Portland, Oregon. In August, he was watching a YouTube video of a Tesla owner who discovered that he could now play a video game on his touch-screen while the vehicle is moving.Ĭurious to see for himself, Patton drove his own 2021 Tesla Model 3 to an empty community college parking lot, activated a game called “Sky Force Reloaded” from a menu and did a few loops. Tesla owner Vince Patton, who lives near Portland, Oregon, filed the complaintwith the agency last month. A message was left early Wednesday seeking comment from Tesla, which has disbanded its media relations department. The NHTSA documents do not list any crashes or injuries caused by the problem.Īn investigation can lead to a recall. The probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration covers about 580,000 electric cars and SUVs from model years 2017 through 2022. The probe, which covers all four Tesla models, the S, X, Y and 3, was opened “to evaluate the driver distraction potential of Tesla ‘Passenger Play’ while the vehicle is being driven.” Investigators “will evaluate aspects of the feature, including the frequency and use scenarios of Tesla “Passenger Play.”’
“Before this time, enabling gameplay was only possible when the vehicle was in park.”
“To date, the agency has received one owner complaint describing the gameplay functionality and has confirmed that this capability has been available since December 2020 in Tesla “Passenger Play”-equipped vehicles,” a NHTSA spokesman said in an email. In a document posted Wednesday on its website, the agency says the feature, called “Passenger Play,” may distract the driver and increase the risk of a crash. has opened a formal investigation into the potential for Tesla drivers to play video games on a center touch screen while the vehicle is in motion.