Last August, Vince Patton was watching a YouTube video of a Tesla owner who had made a startling observation: Tesla drivers could now play a video game on their car's touch-screen dashboard – while the vehicle is moving. Curious to see for himself, Patton drove his own 2021 Tesla Model 3 to an empty community college parking lot, activated a game called "Sky Force Reloaded" from a menu and did a few loops. "And I was dumbfounded by that. That just seems so inherently dangerous," said Patton, a 59-year-old retired broadcast journalist who lives near Portland, Oregon. He tried Solitaire, too, and was able to activate that game while driving.

Last week, the New York Times noticed something that federal regulators hadn't about Tesla: that thanks to a software update this summer, occupants can now play video games on the dashboard console while the car is in motion. This would seem to be the latest example of Tesla charging ahead with a feature that could potentially endanger people in and outside its cars, and sure enough, the feds are now looking into the matter. I was also curious about the feature. So on Sunday, I went to a Maryland Tesla showroom to test drive a Model 3 while gaming, a stunt that other Tesla owners have demonstrated on YouTube. The showroom was located in a mall, which had a parking lot where I felt safe enough trying to maneuver the car.