Elon Musk recently tweeted some exciting news to those who own Tesla cars and those considering buying them. Although all Tesla cars have had a web browser for a while, that browser didn’t support Netflix or YouTube. Elon tweeted that Tesla will soon be rolling out both YouTube and Netflix capability to cars! (Note that Netflix and YouTube will only work while the car is parked.)
As someone who spent 4 hours in my Tesla in my garage just enjoying the awesome stereo system last week (because I had been on vacation for 2 weeks, I really missed my car), I know my car will quickly become the best place in my house to watch YouTube and Netflix. The 15 inch screen is a little small compared to the 42 inch screen in my bedroom, but the sound in the car is superior to the $3,000 home theater system I have in my family room.
Full Self Driving + Netflix/YouTube!
Elon added a minute later that this isn’t just for use in a parked car but will be useful while traveling as soon as regulators approve full self driving (FSD). I would expect the arcade games and recently released chess game to also be enabled in the car at the same time.
Conclusion
Clearly, Elon isn’t just hyping up the Full Self Driving option, but he realizes that once people don’t have to watch the road, they will have a huge need for entertainment options.
I’m happy to see he supports the popular streaming services of YouTube and Netflix instead of creating Tesla’s own streaming channel. When Tesla has 10 million autonomous cars out there, it may want to roll out its own content, but I think Tesla has enough on its plate right now with all the projects it has already committed to.