Man Hacks His Tesla To Help Him Play Pokemon GO (Updated)

What would you do in order to combine two of your loves? Well, if one of them is this year’s most talked about electric car and the other is this month’s most talked about app, well then, you bloody well hack your Tesla to play Pokemon GO, don’t you?

That’s what one Bay Area man did, and the results, while not perfect, are probably at least entertaining. According to Pink Java, one of its editors “wondered if there were a way to hack his electric vehicle so that he could play while driving,” considering that the car already has a monitor, camera, and GPS, which are three essential elements for playing Pokemon GO.

With an Ethernet cable, some ingenuity, and a little luck, Jeff has managed to get Pokemon Go up and running on his Tesla, although with a couple of wrinkles. For one, it’s not a perfect match for the car’s display:

“It’s not perfect. The Tesla’s display cuts off some of the game; I haven’t been able to fix that.”

And for another, it’s only possible to catch Pokemon while driving in reverse, as the car’s camera is in the rear bumper:

“It makes for quite a challenge. I almost backed over a Rattata!”

That probably makes for some interesting driving challenges on the way home from work, but hey, that’s the way the EV/app hack cookie crumbles, I suppose.

According to the article, Jeff thinks the iconic EV company’s fearless leader might appreciate the way he’s modded his car:

“Maybe they could push this feature out with the next update.”

Perhaps… but then again, do we really need more EVs driving in reverse just to catch augmented reality characters? Maybe Tesla could roll it into the Autopilot feature and use it as a selling point for the app-afflicted?

UPDATE: CNET’s Road Show debunks it as a hoax, and Pink Java Media confirms it in the original story.