Elon Musk Is Turning Teslas Into Atari Gaming Consoles

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Electric cars have a history dating back to as early as the 1820s. It was in the year 1828 that a Hungarian inventor, Ányos Jedlik, put together an electric motor. The inventor used this motor to create the first electric car. The idea behind electric cars was to replace the current and expendable source of fuel like petrol and gasoline. Since an electric car ensures zero gaseous emission, it is also safe for the environment. With this in mind, Elon Musk launched a lineup of electrically powered cars, named the Tesla in 2008.

The first car in this lineup to hit the streets was the Tesla Roadster launched in 2008. This car used a Li-Ion battery to produce a total of 248 hp. The car could accelerate from 0 to 97 KM/h in 3.7 to 3.9 seconds. Several models of the Tesla have since been launched an announced, but the one thing they have in common is the centre console display. This large touchscreen is extremely responsive and allows you to control most of the car. According to reports, the company is planning to push a new update to allow Tesla drivers to play classic Atari games on these displays.

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The news comes straight from the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk himself. In a tweet today, Elon announced that the Tesla software update V9.0 will bring Atari games as an Easter egg to the Tesla cars. Some of the earlier Easter eggs include a drawing pad which the Tesla owners can use to create showcase their artistic talents to the world by publishing their work online. Another fun Easter egg converts the map on the touch-screen panel in the car to a Martian map. And with the new update, the company will bring class Atari games to its cars. It is not the first time that idea of gaming inside a car is explored. A YouTube creator by the name Pog converted his luxurious Lamborghini into a racing simulator. He used the rig to play the Xbox game called Forza Horizon 7, here’s the video.

The video above gives a brief idea of how Elon Musk could go about implementing the Atari games. While of primitive graphics, the classic Atari games like Asteroid (1979), Missile Command (1980) seem like a fun time to spend inside a Tesla. The V9.0 update will be publically available in the next four weeks, after which we can safely say, the driveway of Tesla owners will be the new proving grounds.