Sermon Illustrations
Drivers Are Playing Video Games
Vince Patton couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was surfing YouTube when he found a video of a Tesla driver playing a video game on the car’s touchscreen dashboard. Tesla officials say the feature was added to help drivers pass the time while their cars are docked in charging stations. But Patton was shocked because the driver was playing the video game while the car was in motion.
Patton is also a Tesla owner. Shocked, and also curious, Patton got in his own Tesla Model 3 and headed over to an empty parking lot in a remote area to test it out for himself. He said, “I was just dumbfounded that, yes, sure enough, this sophisticated video game came up.” Not only was he able to load up games but he even surfed the web on the onboard browser. He said, “Somebody’s going to get killed. It’s absolutely insane.”
Patton took his concerns to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. He wrote in a complaint “NHTSA needs to prohibit all live video in the front seat and all live interactive web browsing while the car is in motion. Creating a dangerous distraction for the driver is recklessly negligent.”
An NHTSA spokesperson made this statement: “We are aware of driver concerns and are discussing the feature with the manufacturer. The Vehicle Safety Act prohibits manufacturers from selling vehicles with design defects posing unreasonable risks to safety.”
When contacted, representatives from Tesla were unavailable for comment.
Possible Preaching Angle:
Part of wisdom is learning how to avoid temptations that can distract us from our primary calling, or worse, put our safety and wellbeing in jeopardy.