Days after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, opened a preliminary investigation into Tesla’s “Passenger Play” characteristic—which permits drivers to play sure video games on the automotive’s heart contact display screen whereas the car is transferring—the automaker has determined to switch the characteristic to forestall this extremely harmful and probably deadly exercise.

The NHTSA confirmed to Gizmodo on Thursday that Tesla was altering the performance of Passenger Play. The investigation was prompted by a complaint submitted to the company from Tesla Model 3 proprietor Vince Patton in November. Patton determined to file a criticism after discovering he play video games, equivalent to Sky Force Reloaded and Solitaire, in his automotive whereas it was in movement. (He examined out Passenger Play in an empty school car parking zone).

“Somebody’s going to get killed,” Patton advised the Associated Press. “It’s absolutely insane.”

According to the NHTSA, drivers got the choice to play video games of their Teslas whereas they had been in movement in December 2020. Although drivers might play video games earlier than then, these had been solely accessible when the automotive was parked. This previous summer time, Tesla added the video games Solitaire, Sky Force Reloaded, and The Battle of Polytopia: Moonrise, to Passenger Play, all of which could possibly be performed whereas the automotive was transferring, the New York Times reported. 

The Times discovered that whereas gamers are requested to verify that they aren’t driving once they open the sport, nothing prevents them from mendacity and clicking via to play.

The company’s investigation covers all Tesla fashions produced between 2017 and 2022, or roughly 580,000 autos. The NHTSA advised Gizmodo that its investigation remained open and that it is within the strategy of gathering extra data from Tesla.

“Following the opening of a preliminary evaluation of Tesla’s ‘Passenger Play,’ Tesla informed the agency that it is changing the functionality of this feature. In a new software update, ‘Passenger Play’ will now be locked and unusable when the vehicle is in motion,” an NHTSA spokesperson stated in a press release. “The Agency maintains regular discussions with all manufacturers to discuss potential safety concerns of these systems, including Tesla’s response to our concerns about this feature.”

The spokesperson added that the Vehicle Safety Act prohibits producers from promoting vehicles with defects that pose unreasonable dangers to security. This contains “technologies that distract drivers from driving safely,” the spokesperson stated.

Gizmodo reached out to Tesla for touch upon Thursday however didn’t obtain a response by the point of publication. Given that the automaker disbanded its press department, it’s extremely unlikely we’ll obtain a solution. Nonetheless, we’ll ensure that to replace this text within the uncommon case the corporate will get again to us.