After a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) review, Tesla is officially pulling the plug on gaming while driving.

The company's controversial Passenger Play feature is being dialed back after an evaluation of the feature became a topic of concern.

Only Play Games While Your Tesla Is Parked

A person operating a Tesla vehicle.

On December 21, 2021, the NHTSA launched an official investigation into Tesla's in-car gaming accommodation, Passenger Play. The committee deemed allowing Passenger Play to function while driving to be an unnecessary distraction, one that may significantly increase the risk of a car crash.

The press statement released alongside this inquiry includes the following:

"The Vehicle Safety Act prohibits manufacturers from selling vehicles with defects posing unreasonable risks to safety, including technologies that distract drivers from driving safely."

People playing games, watching movies, and engaging in other forms of entertainment while driving is increasingly becoming a major priority for this regulatory body.

According to the Associated Press, the NHTSA is launching a "formal investigation" into the type of driving environment a Tesla driver finds themselves in amongst the brand's many automated and entertainment-driven features.

In response to the investigation, Tesla announced that it will be updating the software to prevent Passenger Play being used while the car is moving. Instead, the feature will only be accessible while the vehicle is parked.

This ruling impacts around 580,000 Tesla Model S, X, Y, and 3 drivers currently on the road, but the NHTSA has not yet ruled a total recall of all Passenger Play-compatible Tesla vehicles to be necessary at this point in time.

Once updated, Tesla's Passenger Play will be completely unavailable to use whenever the car is in motion.

Related: Tesla Activates In-Car Monitoring to Ensure Drivers Are Paying Attention

Game On in Your Tesla (Just Not While Driving)

No Tesla crashes have been attributed to Passenger Play at the time of this writing. Now, it's very unlikely that we're ever going to see one. With any luck, this precedent will set a cautionary tone of personal responsibility for all car manufacturers to heed.

Our take? Kudos to Tesla for solving the problem before it actually becomes a problem. Albeit only after the NHTSA launched an investigation.