- It's Nick Statt with The Verge,
and we're checking out Tesla
Arcade on a Tesla Model 3.
It's the company's new video game hub
built right into its touch screen.
So Tesla has actually had video games
built into their center
screen here since last August.
They used to hide it in
a secret Easter egg menu
so you would tap this Tesla bar up here,
and you would pull down and it hid
a whole bunch of stuff here,
so not just video games
but just like funny fart mode thing here,
you can turn your car
into a Mars Rover here.
And then if you click this arcade cabinet,
you would launch the video games.
But now, with their most recent update,
they've actually pulled
this into the main menu bar.
So you click this bar down here
and you've got charging, calendar
energy levels, that kind of thing.
You've also got arcade
in the far right corner.
And there you go, you're launched
right into the full list of titles
that are supported on Tesla right now.
Now when you launch a game,
you're gonna get a warning screen.
Effectively, Tesla is telling you,
don't hit the accelerator
when you're playing a game.
You can hit the brake pedal
and it will work in this racing game.
The brake pedal will actually have
the rear brake lights turn
on while you're racing.
But you're not supposed
to hit the accelerator
and also you have to be prepared for
the full control of the car
to resume when you exit the game.
It's gonna be disabled while
you're playing the game.
But as soon as you exit,
the accelerator's gonna
start working again,
the brake pedal's gonna
start working again,
and the gear stalk's
gonna start working again.
So you need to prepared for all of that.
You can't really be doing this
in the middle of the street or in traffic.
They really don't you to do that.
So Beach Buggy Racing 2 is a game
you can play on Android
phones and tablets.
The developer, Vector Unit, works
specifically works with Tesla
to port the game over to its vehicles.
Now, it's gonna have a few key tweaks.
The first is that you're
actually gonna be able to play
as your own Tesla vehicle,
so it's gonna know
the make and color of your car.
And it's gonna know that because
it's gathering it from the software.
Now the other key difference is
that instead of using
touchscreen controls,
you can actually steer
with your Tesla vehicle.
So when you're steering with
the Tesla steering wheel,
it's gonna have you
automatically have you driving,
so it's pressing the accelerator for you.
You can brake, using the
touchscreen controls here.
But you can also brake using the
actual brake pedal of your Tesla vehicle.
And it'll even show brake lights.
So the point of this is not to
distract you while you're driving, right?
It's to give you something fun to do
while you're waiting
for your car to charge
or you've got some time to kill
and you're sitting in park.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, he's
always loved video games.
He basically designed his own video game
before he was even a teenager
so he's got an interest in
doing this kind of fun stuff.
And also, it's just a pretty cool thing.
Tesla basically has an iPad sitting in
the center of their infotainment center.
It's got a powerful processor,
it's got an internet connection.
So basically it's no
different than a tablet
and it can do the things
that a tablet can do,
and Tesla wants to kind of
emphasize that with Arcade.
(beeps)
