Driving around in a Tesla just got a lot more fun and entertaining thanks to a new update that will let drivers play Steam games while onboard. The holiday update (version 2022.44.25.1), as it has been termed will however be applicable to only the latest Model S and X vehicles that were introduced in 2022. Owners of the above-mentioned models will be able to access the thousands of titles that Valve’s popular Steam gaming platform has to offer. Specifically, it is the games – numbering around 6000 – that are compatible with the company’s Steam Deck console will be playable on the car’s central console as well.
Both of the models come with 16 gigs of memory though CEO Elon Musk promised a retrofit will be made available that would enable even older Tesla models to also access the games. Meanwhile, games meant for playing on the Deck handheld device support a frame rate of at least 30fps on the console’s 7-inch 1280 × 800 pixels display. The Tesla, on the other hand, offers 17-inch consoles having a resolution of 2200 × 1300 pixels. The EVs also boasts 10 teraflops of raw computing power that the AMD Ryzen APU onboard the Teslas is capable of. Apart from Steam compatibility, the latest update also ensures drivers can bring along their mouse and keyboard or Bluetooth controllers onboard as well.
Also, Steam integration isn’t the first step to introducing gaming to the Tesla cockpit. Rather, the process dates back to 2018 when Atari games were first introduced to the EVs. That was followed by the Cuphead a year later in 2019 and then Fallout Shelter in 2020. It was then in 2021 that Musk made the bold proclamation of the Model S being equivalent to a PS5 on wheels. Users will also be able to sync across devices so that drivers can start playing from where they left off on other devices. The games however will only be accessible so long as the vehicle is stationary and never while it is in motion to allay safety concerns.
