The Fun Of Charging Your Electric Car
Electric cars have been steadily improving over the years, with advancement in battery and charging technology being improved almost by leaps and bounds. However, the time taken to fully charge an electric car remains one of the most annoying parts of owning one. Refuelling a conventional gasoline car takes anywhere from 3-5 minutes, depending on how big and empty your petrol tank is. But with an electric car, you have to wait for about 20 minutes or more for every full charge.
Image from: DriveTribe
And this is where Tesla comes in. Being one of the market leaders in the electric car, Tesla is continuously pushing the envelope to come up with ingenious ways to keep its customers happy. In the past, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has suggested that Tesla drivers get something to eat, grab some coffee, read a book, catch up on social media and many other ways to pass the time while waiting for their car to charge. But now, Tesla has come up with something a bit more realistic: video games.
Image from: Teslarati
Tesla drivers will have access to something called “Arcade”, which is a collection of games they can play on their car’s center screen to pass the time while their car is being charged. The games include classics like Pong and more notable games created just for this experience like Beach Buggy Racing 2, which allows for drivers to race on 22 tracks using the car’s steering wheel and brake pedal. The game only works as long as the car is in park.
The Tesla edition of Beach Buggy Racing 2 comes with various nods to electric driving, including the "Starman" sitting in the Tesla Model 3 Elon Musk launched into space last year.
“It wasn’t too much work,” says Vector Unit founder and technical director Ralf Knoesel. Knoesel and his colleagues are big Tesla fans, big enough that they did reworked the entire game for Tesla for free.
“We just think it’s really cool,” Knoesel says.
It’s these kinds of things that makes Tesla such a unique automaker. Elon Musk is more connected to the owners of Tesla cars than any other executive, and this has allowed him to keep within touch of what the owners themselves want. However, the real question, as Musk once said, is “How do we make it as fun as possible?”
Image from: Inverse
As a company, Tesla is still trying its hardest to keep up to date with its inventory, and working to become profitable as its tries to rival the other automakers. So it’s good to see that with the “Arcade” and other upcoming planned software updates, the difficult climb up hasn’t dulled its sense of fun just yet.
What do you think about this feature in the Tesla? How viable would it be for a normal, conventional car? Leave a comment below!