Tesla Holiday Update Brings Steam Games to Model S and X EVs

Tesla
(Image credit: Tesla)

With their 10 TFLOPS infotainment system, the newest versions of Tesla's Model S and Model X electric vehicles have been poised to gain thousands of games to play on the in-vehicle displays. Tesla CEO Elon Musk first promised Steam integration earlier this year, and on Wednesday, the company finally brought Valve's gaming platform to select vehicles.  

"Steam is here — bringing thousands of games to new Model S & X vehicles," said Tesla in a statement via Twitter. 

For now, games confirmed to work with Valve's Steam Deck also work on Tesla Model S and X (model year 2022+) with 16 GB of memory and Premium Connectivity. Yes, Cyberpunk 2077 is among those games. Eventually, more titles may come to these electric vehicles, but Tesla refrained from revealing which games and when. The Tesla vehicles fully support Steam's cloud synchronization for saving game progression between devices.

In addition to Steam integration, the Holiday Update brings Apple Music and Zoom apps for the first time. All Teslas feature a Dog Mode that allows you to set the climate control to a comfortable temperature for your pet while you go into a store and presents the current temperature to passersby via the central display. The Holiday Update now allows you to check in on your pets using the onboard cabin camera with the Tesla app on your smartphone. 

Getting Steam to a car may not sound like a big deal per se since this is not a primary feature for a vehicle. But by enabling Steam on its electric automobiles, Tesla somewhat brings infotainment to a new level, essentially changing what users typically expect from in-vehicle infotainment in general.

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • TechieTwo
    So now Tesla drivers using autopilot can play video games while their car crashes into stopped emergency vehicles? Do Tesla owners have to pay extra for this "feature"?
    Reply
  • Elusive Ruse
    The way GPU prices are going; soon buying a Tesla will be a more reasonable option for gaming.
    Reply
  • rluker5
    Those are nice options. Not essential, but nice.
    I would rather game on a laptop if I were a passenger because of options and screen placement, and zoom on a phone for the same reasons. And you can't trust passersby to be observant enough to see a large temperature posted when they see your air conditioned dog in a car with closed windows. But it sounds obvious enough that if they freak out it is their problem that you would quickly be able to explain away. The monitor placement for gaming could be a good way of "sharing" a game with your kid playing from the back seat.

    Complaining about new luxuries, what a first world problem. Like my automatic dim brights that I sometimes look like an ass with because I forget they are not in manual :P
    Reply
  • Brandon Hill_TH
    TechieTwo said:
    So now Tesla drivers using autopilot can play video games while their car crashes into stopped emergency vehicles? Do Tesla owners have to pay extra for this "feature"?

    Watching videos or playing games in a Tesla is ONLY available when the vehicle is in Park. So this is more beneficial when you're stopped at a Supercharger and need to kill some time.
    Reply
  • kep55
    Admin said:
    Tesla owners get their Christmas gifts early with Steam integration.

    Tesla Holiday Up Brings Steam Games to Model S and X EVs : Read more
    Oh boy! Musk wants to add even more distractions to drivers. It's bad enuff his self-drive software has killed or injured who knows how many. Now the goof wants drivers to pay games instead of paying attention to the road.
    Reply
  • Brandon Hill_TH
    kep55 said:
    Oh boy! Musk wants to add even more distractions to drivers. It's bad enuff his self-drive software has killed or injured who knows how many. Now the goof wants drivers to pay games instead of paying attention to the road.
    Did you NOT read my comment posted right above? :) You can't watch videos or play games while the vehicle is in motion... or even when stopped while the vehicle is in DRIVE. It has to be put in PARK to access video content or games.
    Reply
  • rluker5
    Brandon Hill_TH said:
    Did you NOT read my comment posted right above? :) You can't watch videos or play games while the vehicle is in motion... or even when stopped while the vehicle is in DRIVE. It has to be put in PARK to access video content or games.
    Even android auto has a couple crappy games that are only available in park. They might have gotten better but I uninstalled that trash because of the terrible audio downscaling, startup blocking of me getting good audio from the usb and the oversimplification of maps to the point of frustration.
    I bet the apple option is better, but not worth me replacing my phone.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    I don't know about you guys, but I don't spend any significant time in my car with it in PARK, for a game to be a relevant option.
    Reply