Tesla to demo Steam for more in-car gaming soon using Linux & Proton

Microsoft has been trying very hard lately to prevent machines from installing Linux natively via hidden bios options that most normies would have no clue about or even risk touching no matter how much they wish to try or move to Linux.

I can attest to that. Got a laptop a month or two ago when my old one died. Had to do a surprising amount of fiddling and looking stuff up before I could disable the stupid bios stuff that was blocking my Linux install. And it wasn't just the UEFI stuff, it was some other dang thing.

Gaming on your car! A big impact in your life!

I get it your passengers want a pastime cause your a boring driver but just get a steam deck ?

The Steam Deck is only available in a small part of the world, so for many of us, a Tesla is the only portable Linux console we can buy. I'd love to buy one if I could though.

So it's a Steam Deck with a really big battery, I wonder how long it lasts on a single charge

So, I buy this car for me put steam on. I'm home playing a steam game. My spouse then takes my car to do an errand, it turns on, logs into my steam account ( kicking me at home off). So now I'm trying to call my spouse while they are running errands to go back to the car and close steam?


I can kinda see the criticisms that these innovations are all thought up of people that don't have to think about family life.

I thought Steam actually had some kind of family account thing.

They do! So you could presumably make a separate "car" account for your car and share the library with it. As long as two accounts don't access the same game at the same time, it's ok.

Of course, you'll have to redo your friends, workshop, etc for the new account, and achievements won't sync, or saves, etc. All so you don't get kicked off your account because someone in the family borrowed your car to go shopping.

So, I think the general IoT type criticisms that some of these things aren't really designed with multi-users or families in mind stands.

Mind you, to be fair, I don't have this car. Could it maybe some how ID the person driving and switch to the proper Steam account (and other setting)? Maybe. Hopefully we don't have to do the whole Steam Guard thing while driving, lol.

Now all we need is autonomous driving that doesn't get you killed! :D

To what I've heard, it's better than those "humans", though.

So it's a Steam Deck with a really big battery, I wonder how long it lasts on a single charge

According to Wikipedia, the Steam Deck has a 40Wh battery, while the smallest Tesla batteries are 50kWh, so that'd be at least 1000 times as much gaming on a single charge, unless you also use it for driving.

Could it maybe some how ID the person driving and switch to the proper Steam account (and other setting)?

Teslas support separate profiles for each driver for driving mode, seat and mirror adjustment, etc. I don't know if that will be integrated with Steam profiles at all though. Probably depends on the extent of collaboration between Tesla and Valve?

unless you also use it for driving.

What a waste of rare earth elements.

Now all we need is autonomous driving that doesn't get you killed! :D

To what I've heard, it's better than those "humans", though.

Oh, c'mon. Who'd let one of those behind the wheel of a car?

Teslas support separate profiles for each driver for driving mode, seat and mirror adjustment, etc. I don't know if that will be integrated with Steam profiles at all though. Probably depends on the extent of collaboration between Tesla and Valve

Did not know that. Cool idea. Im not sure why they would need to collaborate with Valve to change profiles. If it's Linux under the hood and it's just switching users, seems like simple autostart would do that. No different than our PC's, right?

Teslas support separate profiles for each driver for driving mode, seat and mirror adjustment, etc. I don't know if that will be integrated with Steam profiles at all though. Probably depends on the extent of collaboration between Tesla and Valve

Did not know that. Cool idea. Im not sure why they would need to collaborate with Valve to change profiles. If it's Linux under the hood and it's just switching users, seems like simple autostart would do that. No different than our PC's, right?

Because from what I can tell, there's no actual switching of Linux user sessions. It's just a profile change that takes place in the Tesla UI. I could be wrong about that though, and it's just so seemless that I didn't notice.

And for all I know, it might not even be difficult to switch Steam users in a single user session. It might just work "out of the box".


Last edited by flesk on 22 July 2022 at 4:16 am UTC

So, I buy this car for me put steam on. I'm home playing a steam game. My spouse then takes my car to do an errand, it turns on, logs into my steam account ( kicking me at home off). So now I'm trying to call my spouse while they are running errands to go back to the car and close steam?


I can kinda see the criticisms that these innovations are all thought up of people that don't have to think about family life.

Steam has supported multiple PCs being logged into the same account for some time now, since about the introduction of "remote play" (or "in-home streaming", as it was called years ago).

I'm pretty sure you can even restart in offline mode if you want to play simultaneously.

Steam has supported multiple PCs being logged into the same account for some time now, since about the introduction of "remote play" (or "in-home streaming", as it was called years ago).

I'm aware of these features and use them. I'm also aware that when you try to play games independently on the same account, steam blocks you. If your a single PC/steam account type family, it's not a good solution. On the other hand I guess you could stream from your PC to your car? I've used the remote streaming a lot, but never outside of a LAN environment. Might be cool.

I'm pretty sure you can even restart in offline mode if you want to play simultaneously.

You can, sometimes. But you have to start in offline first. Logging in, trying to play a game, the restarting in offline so as not to boot the other player off doesn't always work. I'm not sure if it sets a local variable or or it phones home regardless claiming to be "offline", either way, the DRM does try to enforce it (although imperfectly). As a single Steam account family, I can fully attest to that. Besides not sure how easy that would be to do while driving.

I think the best way practically would be to setup up a dummy account for family sharing on the car. I think that solves my criticisms.


Last edited by denyasis on 23 July 2022 at 2:49 pm UTC

According to Wikipedia, the Steam Deck has a 40Wh battery, while the smallest Tesla batteries are 50kWh, so that'd be at least 1000 times as much gaming on a single charge, unless you also use it for driving.

According to a friend who bought one, and my own opinion having ridden in one, the Teslas aren't really fit for driving anyhow. May as well be a battery for playing Steam games!

I don't see this as a good idea. When are people going to use it?

I don't see this as a good idea. When are people going to use it?

I could imagine it at the backseat for the children.

According to a friend who bought one, and my own opinion having ridden in one, the Teslas aren't really fit for driving anyhow.

How so?

I don't see this as a good idea. When are people going to use it?

Some of Tesla's entertainment features can only be accessed while parked, and are meant to pass time while charging. I imagine this is one of those.

According to a friend who bought one, and my own opinion having ridden in one, the Teslas aren't really fit for driving anyhow.

How so?

I don't see this as a good idea. When are people going to use it?

Some of Tesla's entertainment features can only be accessed while parked, and are meant to pass time while charging. I imagine this is one of those.

The suspension, even after all of the extras he tried to put on, was pretty terrible. You'd hit a pothole, aand know a baby feels when being cared for by an impatient teenager...