Earlier this week, Tesla “Technoking” Elon Musk tweeted that the company is getting closer to the release of its in-car integration of Valve’s Steam gaming service to take his in-car gaming platform to the next level.
The gaming feature built into the latest version of the Tesla operating system has caused a lot of controversy in recent months, and the ability to allegedly play distracting video games while the car is in motion has gotten a lot of heat from the NHTSA, causing prestigious institutions like the New York Times to issue buckets of ink to cover the case.
Despite this, the game features – especially for the rear passengers – are highly appreciated by parents of young children. When the redesigned Model S first bowed with its new interior, our own Zachary Shahan wrote:“One of the biggest factors for me is the touchscreen, which I’m very happy to now match the Model 3 and Model Y touchscreens. And the extra screen in the back for kids is, let’s face it, a bit of a mess at times. huge help. I much prefer that to portable tablets, and it makes it easier to say ‘Okay, time for a break’ while driving and turn it off.”
Enough people seem to think the same way that Tesla isn’t just developing a Steam integration to allow Model S owners to play other people’s games, but is developing its own gaming division. That’s right: Tesla makes video games, and the proof is that job openings like this one for “Video games engineer, infotainment software.”
In case it disappears, the job description reads:
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What to expect
- Design, build, deploy and debug game platform interfaces and systems
- Rapid prototyping and ownership of fun in-car customer experiences
- Working with a multi-functional team of software engineers, QA, designs, hardware engineers and game developers
- Communicate with game development and publishing partners
- Proficient in C++
- Excellent understanding of basic computer science concepts
- Experience writing and sending customer-facing code
- Willingness and curiosity to learn new technologies in any area of the stack: UI, Rendering, Core, Protocol, Server
- Experience building state-of-the-art products in the video game industry
- High standards for code quality, maintainability and performance
Tesla strives to make its cars as fun as possible; bringing video game experiences to the car makes that fun even greater. In this incredibly rare opportunity to help build a video game platform, we are looking for a highly motivated software engineer to ensure the best video game content is available in the car. Come put that industry experience to good use and help us build this platform. You will need strong software engineering skills, excellent interpersonal communication, and experience in accepting and providing meaningful feedback on engineering designs. You are expected to contribute to many different areas to help projects succeed, which can range from making kernel-level code changes, creating vehicle user interfaces, developing in-game behaviors, to helping from developers when working with our platform. You will be responsible for bringing fun gaming experiences to Tesla Vehicles and you will have to work with our top-notch design team and back-end developers to help create this platform. Our goal is to set the bar for what in-car video games can be; much of this is virgin territory and has never been done before. We want to work with people who are enthusiastic about this goal and who have the talent to make it happen.
What are you going to do?
What to bring
Tesla is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other factor protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.
Tesla is also committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. Let your recruiter know if you need accommodation at any point during the application process.
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