Tesla drivers will be able to make Zoom calls from their car

Tesla drivers will soon be able to make a video call directly from the vehicle’s touchscreen dashboard, Zoom announced Tuesday.

The video calling provider announced during its annual Zoom conference, where it typically teases new features to support remote calling, that its software is coming to Tesla’s integrated entertainment center.

In a pre-recorded demo video shown at the event, a Tesla driver is seen making a Zoom call while charging his vehicle.

The company did not respond to a request for comment on whether it will prevent drivers from using it while driving, as many car manufacturers require a car to be parked before the video functions can be used by the driver. The time of release is also unknown.

But the feature itself is one that Tesla has been pondering for years. In May 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet that Zoom calls to Tesla vehicles were “definitely a future feature.”

In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Musk received a series of tweets asking for Zoom integration; drivers argued that this would give them another private space to take calls and make use of the existing driver-facing camera, present on some Teslas, and big screen.

At the time, a Zoom spokesperson told pop culture website Mashable that adding support for video calling to its system would not be the safest use case because many people might try to use it while driving.

Zoom also unveiled other new tools at Tuesday’s event, including integrating email and calendar services directly into the service, a conversational AI and chatbot that helps troubleshoot issues, and support for developers to monetize their apps on Zoom’s App Marketplace. Zoom.

The Zoom news comes as Tesla faces increasing competition in the electric vehicle market from established automakers such as Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors. Some investors have expressed concern that Musk is too distracted by the Twitter purchase to pay enough attention to solving Tesla’s problems.

This week, Musk continued to sell Tesla shares for a total that now approaches $4 billion since acquiring Twitter. Tesla shares have lost 46% of their value so far this year on disappointing sales caused by supply chain problems.

Musk’s companies haven’t always had a strong relationship with Zoom. SpaceX, for example, banned its employees from using Zoom in April 2020 over “significant privacy and security concerns.”