--- title: "Elon Musk Tried to Bring “Mario Kart” to Your Tesla Model 3" description: "Elon Musk revealed he tried to get a license to Mario Kart for Tesla cars. But Nintendo didn't play ball." date: "2018-11-30" modified: "2018-11-30" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-mario-kart-every-tesla" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Tesla" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "Autonomous Cars" - "elon musk" - "tesla" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Tried to Bring “Mario Kart” to Your Tesla Model 3 ![Elon Musk admitted he tried to get a license to Mario Kart for every Tesla car. But Nintendo didn't play ball.]() *\Image: Nintendo/Getty Images/Victor Tangermann\* ## Tesla Kart You know what's really missing from your $35,000 Tesla Model 3? More video games. That's at least what Elon Musk thinks, anyway. In a tweet yesterday, the Tesla CEO [revealed]() that Teslas are about to get an update chock full of new features like "romance mode, toilet humor," and, of course, "more video games." In a followup reply, Musk also admitted that Nintendo wouldn't license the blockbuster "Mario Kart" to Tesla. That's not surprising, given how [cagey]() Nintendo has been about its own intellectual properties — but it is a shame. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1068215333159231488 ## Fun and Games Playing "Mario Kart" on the Model 3's 15 inch touchscreen sounds pretty fun. But it would take quite a bit of work on the software front — that is, if Tesla's board computer is even capable of handling complex 3D animation on the fly. And that's not to mention the complete lack of a controller. There are already other ways to play games in a Tesla. So far, Tesla has included easter egg features like ["TeslAtari"]() — an emulator of classic Atari games from 1979 with touchscreen controls — in all of its cars. ## Autonomous Boredom But Musk's strange obsession with bringing video games and other fun to Tesla's electric vehicles makes sense: once cars are able to drive themselves, what will we be left to do while while they drive us around? Sure, we could mess around on our smartphones or read a book — but honestly, video games on the dashboard monitor sounds like a lot more fun. **READ MORE:** [Elon Musk Claims Nintendo Wouldn’t License ‘Mario Kart’ for Teslas]() **More on autonomous car fun:** [IKEA's got some strange, beautiful ideas about what AVs might look like]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()