The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a formal investigation into the safety of the front center touchscreen of the car that allows drivers to play video games while the vehicle is in motion.
The U.S. auto safety regulators are looking into 580,000 cars that have the feature.
Musk believes that in-vehicle entertainment will be very desirable once vehicles become self-sufficient.
According to the agency, the passenger play feature may act as a distraction for the driver and increase the risk of a crash.
The New York Times reported earlier this month that a service update for the car maker warned that playing while the car is in motion is only for passengers, and that a button will ask for confirmation that the player is a passenger, though a driver could play simply by pressing the button.
The agency has received one owner complaint about the ability to play music in the car, and has confirmed that it has been available since December 2020.
It was only possible when the vehicle was in park.
The NHTSA said that it would evaluate aspects of the feature, including the use of passenger play, in its evaluation.
The agency said in its report that it was not aware of any crashes or injuries linked to the feature.
A representative for the company could not be reached.
According to the NHTSA, distracted driving contributes to thousands of road deaths each year. It says that official figures underestimate the problem because so many drivers deny being distracted.
The agency has issued guidelines for all vehicles.
The initial complaint was filed by the owner of the car after he discovered that he could play a video game on his computer while the car was moving.
He urged the auto regulator to prohibit live video and interactive web browsing on the centrally-located front touchscreen while the vehicles are in motion.
In his complaint, he said that the NHTSA needs to prohibit live video in the front seat and live interactive web browsing while the car is in motion.
It is negligent to create a dangerous distraction for the driver.
Before the agency can demand a recall, it must upgrade the probe to an engineering analysis.
135,000 vehicles were recalled byTesla earlier this year due to touchscreen failures.
The agency is looking into 765,000 vehicles over a series of crashes involving the company's cars and one or more parked emergency vehicles.
When it did an over-the-air internet update to address the safety problem, it failed to file recall documents with the regulators.
NHTSA is looking into the performance of the software after getting a complaint that it nearly caused a crash.
Both systems can not drive vehicles autonomously, and drivers must be ready to intervene at all times.
The Mercedes-Benz recalls hundreds of model year S580, S500, and S450 after a Nov. 29 report pointed to a similar error.
The entertainment feature was disabled while the cars were in motion, but was corrected with a server update.
Bryan Jung is a writer.
Bryan S. Jung has a background in politics and the legal industry. He graduated from a university.
