Teslas have had games through Tesla Arcade for many years, but now thanks to Google’s new initiative, they just gained access to 75 new, full-screen titles. YouTube Playables lets you enjoy games using just a web browser, whether it’s on your phone, computer, or in your vehicle.
YouTube’s new Playables include fairly popular mobile game adaptions, including classics like Cut the Rope, Chess, Daily Crossword, Element Blocks, and others.
How to Access Playables
The easiest way to access the new games in your car is to open up the YouTube app in Tesla Theater. YouTube is requiring users to sign in to use Playables. Once you’re signed in, you can navigate to Playables or open search, and type “Youtube Playables.” The list of Playables will appear as a horizontal bar. On the right side of the bar, a “See All” button will appear.
There are currently more than 75 games on YouTube Playables, and YouTube intends to add more as time goes on.
Full Screen or Windowed Play
You can also play games in a smaller window view
Not a Tesla App
Thanks to Tesla opening up YouTube in a full-screen window, you can enjoy games full-screen, just like Tesla’s other Arcade titles. However, you can also play the games in a smaller windowed version by tapping the icon on the top-left corner. This is useful if you want to access other vehicle controls such as climate as well.
Game Compatibility
YouTube Playables works on Intel and AMD vehicles, and since they just use the browser, they don’t require a download. On Intel-based cars, there’s a noticeable lag in some games, but most games are still enjoyable and playable on the older MCU. While the loading experience is fine on AMD vehicles, it is fairly slow on Intel vehicles. All games use the vehicle’s touchscreen and don’t currently support controllers, however, these are adapted mobile games which rely on having a touchscreen device.
Future of Games on Tesla
With Tesla recently removing Steam from newer vehicles, and now with YouTube’s announcement of 75+ browser-based games, it seems that Tesla’s game ambitions may change. While YouTube Playables can’t compare to the titles that were available on Steam, most users don’t need to play Triple-A titles in their car. If they choose to load up a game, it’s mostly to pass a little bit of time.
Now that Teslas have access to almost a hundred games on top of what Tesla already offers, we may see Tesla’s efforts change since the casual gaming need is already being fulfilled by someone else. Tesla may instead choose to pour time and resources into other Tesla features or provide a unique gaming experience like they’re doing with the addition to Beach Buggy Racing - Supercharger Races. This special edition of the game lets you set the fastest lap at your local Supercharger and climb up your Supercharger’s leaderboard.
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A how-to on accessing 75 new and free games in your Tesla using Youtube’s new Playables list!!! pic.twitter.com/Fr3s87MCEK
Winter is here, and temperatures are dropping, so one of the most common Tesla questions is about to resurface.
If you’ve landed here after frantically searching about “smoke” coming from your Tesla while Supercharging, take a deep breath—it’s completely normal.
Tesla Smoking While Charging
If you’re Supercharging in freezing weather—even with preconditioning—you might notice steam rising from your Tesla. But rest assured, your car isn’t smoking.
Your Tesla’s heat pump is hard at work warming both the cabin and battery to keep you comfortable and ensure optimal charging temperatures. Over time, condensation and ice build-up in the heat exchanger coils.
Why Does It Happen?
When you reach a Supercharger with your vehicle, the heat pump is still running hot, but without the cold air from driving to keep the heat exchanger coils cool, the ice and condensation quickly start to evaporate—creating what looks like smoke.
Since this typically happens near the front of the vehicle, where a car would traditionally have an engine, new vehicle owners can be startled by the discovery. However, rest assured that it’s just water vapor and it’s completely normal in cold weather.
In fact, this behavior can be experienced in any EV with a heat pump in cold climates. So, if you saw steam coming out of your vehicle and panicked, don’t worry—you’re not alone.
Now that you know what’s happening, go ahead and Supercharge with confidence.
Tesla made a lot of improvements in the 2024 Holiday Update, including more than 15 undocumented improvements that were included in the release. One of these was a stealthy performance improvement to the YouTube app.
Several people have mentioned they’ve seen improved performance on YouTube since this year’s Holiday Update - and there’s an interesting reason why.
YouTube Improvements
The improved YouTube performance in Tesla vehicles comes from an unexpected source—Tesla actually rolled back support for YouTube’s newer AV1 video encoding. Instead, vehicles now default to the older VP9 encoding standard.
While AV1 is highly efficient in terms of bandwidth, it requires considerably more processing power to decode and display videos. VP9, on the other hand, is less computationally demanding but uses more bandwidth to achieve the same video quality. This trade-off means smoother playback and better overall performance, even if it comes at the cost of slightly higher data usage.
Intel Inside
The VP9 video codec that the YouTube app is now using is much easier to decode, making it less taxing on the vehicle’s processor. This change is particularly beneficial for Tesla vehicles with Intel processors, which previously struggled to stream video at just 720p. When using AV1, these vehicles often experienced stuttering, sometimes forcing the YouTube app to automatically downgrade playback to 480p.
With this update, Intel-based Teslas should now be able to stream at 1080p smoothly. Streaming at 1440p is also possible, although occasional stutters still occur as the system keeps up with the decoding process.
Intel-based vehicles are the big winners with this change, but this appears to affect AMD Ryzen-based infotainment units as well, providing even smoother playback.
Chromium Web App
Tesla’s Theater apps aren’t native applications; instead, they run as chromeless web apps, leveraging the open-source browser built into Teslas known as Chromium (the open-source version of Chrome). Although this works quite well, there is a severe limitation - Chromium hardware acceleration isn’t supported on Linux, the operating system Tesla uses for their OS.
As a result, Tesla vehicles rely on software decoding instead of hardware decoding, which would otherwise handle video playback far more efficiently. A potential solution could be for Tesla to transition away from Chromium-based web apps in favor of a Mozilla Firefox-based browser, as Firefox does support hardware acceleration on Linux. This switch could also open the door to better streaming performance and the possibility of expanding Tesla’s in-car entertainment options.
However, Tesla’s choice of Chromium likely stems from Digital Rights Management (DRM) requirements for streaming services like Disney+ and Netflix, which rely on DRM-enabled playback. Firefox on Linux has had inconsistent support for DRM due to codec availability and variations in operating system versions.
We’re hopeful that Tesla will either adopt Firefox or develop a fully native application to improve video streaming, rather than continuing with the current web-based Tesla Theater. This shift could also pave the way for additional in-car applications built on Tesla’s native Linux environment—perhaps even reviving the long-rumored Tesla App Store.
Regardless, this update is a welcome improvement, particularly for YouTube, which remains one of the most widely used Theater Mode apps due to its accessibility, free content, and mix of short and long-form videos. It remains to be seen whether similar improvements are made for Netflix, Disney+, or other streaming platforms.
If you’ve noticed improved performance in Theater Mode, now you know why.