Elon Musk is testing Tesla Steam integration

When Tesla released the updated Model S and Model X, the company boasted about its onboard computer being not only capable of playing latest games but having equal performance to latest game consoles. Elon Musk promised that by August this year Tesla cars will support the entire Steam library. August came and went and Tesla was quiet - until now.

Asked on Twitter about updates on the integration, Elon Musk replied that he was actually testing it that very day. It seems the feature is still on the cards then but unfortunately there is no word how soon, or how late it will be available.

I’m testing it today in Palo Alto

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 13, 2022

Tesla already offers video games in its infotainment system and is working with many game studios to provide even more but integrating the entire Steam library would make Tesla cars the most expensive gaming consoles in the world. Elon Musk believes in-car gaming will be very important once the cars start driving themselves, which he’s adamant will be very soon.

Tesla actually has an entire team of software engineers working on video games in its Seattle offices. That team is not alone - the second team is being put together in Austin. Their task is to further develop the Tesla Arcade, a video game platform not too different from Steam and obviously available across all Tesla vehicles.

The company is constantly updating the library of games available through Tesla Arcade and it indicated it wants to offer subscriptions to its gaming service by bundling different games together. If it sounds familiar it’s because it is essentially what Steam offers or Xbox Live Store or even PlaySation Store. It looks like Tesla is simply trying to get into the gaming business.

The whole situation just shows how far ahead of its competition Tesla really is. While other companies struggle with basic software issues, outdated graphic design, laggy performance and unusable user interfaces, Tesla is struggling with console grade video games in its cars. That’s a whole different level of struggle.

Whether Tesla manages to get the FSD to roll out to the general public and whether it is as good as it claims it is, having quality video gaming in the car is a great solution, especially for electric cars. Quite often it takes about an hour to recharge the car at a public charger and if the driver is alone he or she can manage with a book or quick YouTube or Netflix session on a phone. But when you have your family with you - that’s another story.

Having a decent gaming platform means keeping everyone in the car busy during long cross-state or country trips, it means the charging is less of a chore and becomes an excuse for a little bit of fun and makes the ownership of electric cars so much easier. Yes, back in the day we managed without the screens, games and YouTube, we managed with the “I spy with my little eye” - trust me, it wasn’t fun. Neither for the parents nor the kids.

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