If it’s up to Elon Musk (and let’s be honest, it generally is), then Teslas will soon have fully-fledged gaming consoles built in. The Tesla CEO recently tweeted that the company is busy porting Unity and the Unreal Engine to its electric automobiles that’ll allow the centre console more gaming power.
The port will essentially enable the cars to play a number of games… well, more games than it can already play. We’re not quite sure which games will show up, but Musk says games will be playable via the in-car touchscreen, a game controller and even the steering wheel and pedals in some cases. Presumably the car will have to be stationary in all cases… or perhaps this is move to give Tesla drivers entertainment options when full autonomous driving shows up.
Also porting Unreal Engine
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 19, 2019
Late last year Musk tweeted about the inclusion of Atari Easter eggs in the Tesla V9.0 update, including a few classics such as Centipede, Asteroids and Missile Command.
Covering all the bases
Unity is a multi-platform game engine initially developed for mobile games, but it’s since been used for PC and consoles games. Some of the most notable games built on Unity are Hearthstone, Kerbal Space Program and Cuphead.
When I was in elementary school I spent all my quarters playing Asteroids. Now, thanks to @Tesla and @elonmusk I can enjoy it again every time I pick up my kids from school or work. pic.twitter.com/YJqWGyNKf9
— teslainvernon (@teslainvernon) May 18, 2019
The Unreal Engine, on the other hand, is an open-source development platform that is considered one of the powerhouses of video game development. This platform powers a wide array of games, most notably Unreal Tournament (which is being remade at the moment) and the highly successful and equally annoying Fortnite.
Unfortunately, what with Musk being pretty cryptic in his tweets, we don’t know which games will make it to the Teslas yet. But that’s fine it gives us time to, you know, save for a Tesla, get it to South Africa, and start putting together our Tesla esports team.