Tesla is building a new video game development team in Austin, Texas, where its fifth Gigafactory is under construction, as the world’s bestselling electric carmaker looks to create a more fun in-car experience.
The team, which will include video game and infotainment software engineers, user interface engineers and rendering engineers, represents the carmaker’s stepped-up efforts to build a strong video game platform following the release of several games in May.
“Tesla strives to make its cars the most fun possible; bringing video game experiences to the car helps increase that fun,” the carmaker wrote in the job description of the video games engineer on its website. “In this incredibly rare opportunity to help build a video games platform, we are looking for a highly motivated software engineer to help enable the best video game content to be available in-car.”
While Tesla already has a video game developing team in Bellevue, Washington, the new hires will be part of its gaming workforce based in Austin.
As part of a new software update, Tesla launched a video game platform called Tesla Arcade in May, releasing some games including Fallout Shelter. The game can only be played while the vehicle is parked using the massive touch screen.
Among the other jobs related to the software development team, Tesla is looking for a rendering engineer who can help advance its software infotainment system. “We are aiming to build the world’s best in-car experience by taking full advantage of our 17in display, graphics hardware, and recent advances in features,” the job post said.
“Tesla cars are not just vehicles but gargantuan digital tools for people to access the best entertainment content, communication services and driving experiences,” said Peter Chen, an engineer with car components maker TRW. “Chinese drivers, particularly those middle-class youngsters, will be captivated by the content available in-car.”
Tesla is the world’s bestselling electric carmaker, delivering 179,050 units between January and June, according to data provider EV-Sales. The sales volume accounted for 19 per cent of the global total.
In China, the world’s largest electric vehicle market, Tesla sold 14,954 Model 3 cars in June, representing 23% of the national total, according to China Passenger Car Association.
Its Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai, the company’s first plant outside the US, began operations in late 2019 and began delivering locally built Model 3 cars to mainland customers at the start of this year.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s chief executive Elon Musk has become the world’s third-richest individual with a net worth of US$115.4bil , according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
He passed Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, as shares of Tesla continued to rise after undergoing a stock split.
- SCMP