Zoom Video Calls From Your Tesla Coming Soon
Many of the apps featured on Tesla’s touchscreen infotainment center are useful, especially for times when you’re charging but want to be entertained or even get some work done. Video conferencing from inside a Tesla will soon be added to the car’s available features according to a new announcement, so that you will be able to be productive more easily and in more ways the next time you’re at a Supercharger.
Zoom and Tesla announced a partnership earlier this month that will let you take video calls from your infotainment center, as detailed in a report from Jalopnik. The company announced the news at its Zoomtopia 2022 event, also sharing a short preview of how the feature would work when in your Tesla.
The app is set to use Tesla’s built-in hardware for meetings. In a demonstration of the feature in the launch video, Zoom seemed to show that it would use the in-car camera located on the rearview mirror. Additionally, the video shows the app connecting to Tesla’s onboard calendar app.
It’s not clear as of yet when the feature will launch, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been tweeting about the feature since at least 2020, calling it “definitely a future feature” in one tweet. At the time, Zoom was opposed to the idea due to concerns over distracted driving, but the companies now seem to be comfortable with a solution that works for both of them.
Concerns about the app’s use while driving are valid, but the companies did clarify in the recent announcement that calls will only be able to be received or sent while the vehicle is in park.
Despite being unsafe, the practice of using Zoom while driving isn’t unheard of, and the inclusion of the app in Tesla’s vehicles could encourage drivers to use the in-car app for conferencing while parked, rather than using the app on a smartphone or another device while driving. (In one famous case last year, a state senator was even spotted making a Zoom call while driving his car on the very same day a piece of distracted driving legislation was introduced by his own state’s legislature.)
Few other details were shared in the announcement. Though, the companies did say Zoom would soon become a standard feature in all of Tesla’s models. Tesla’s infotainment center currently includes popular streaming apps such as Disney+, Spotify, Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu as well as a number of video game titles and “caraoke.”
Originally published by EVANNEX. Written by Peter McGuthrie.
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