Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) continues to advance vehicle technology that could make autonomous driving more readily available for its owners. A new report shows that Tesla's driver visualization could be getting an upgrade from a video game company.
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Epic Games Enters The Picture
Video game company Epic Games is known for many hit games such as "Rocket League," "Valorant" and "Fortnite." The video game company is also known as the owner of Unreal Engine, a 3D computer graphics game engine that helps create video games for other companies.
That same technology that powers video games such as Fortnite could be headed to Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X vehicles that have chips from Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) inside.
A report from Tesla hacker "greentheonly" shows Tesla has coding with Unreal Engine for Autopilot visualization, as reported by Teslarati.
"It looks like Tesla is adding unreal-engine based AP viz (the one you see today is godot-based). The binaries are already shipping starting from firmware 2025.20 only on AMD-based S and X cars for now," the user tweeted.
According to the report, Tesla's current driver visualization shows the Tesla vehicle, surroundings and the route of travel on the center screen of the vehicle.
Items such as pedestrians, pets and the shapes of other vehicles have also been added into the visualizations in recent years.
With Unreal Engine, Tesla could provide a more realistic outline of what's going on outside the vehicle and improve driver visualization, according to the report.
TeslaNewswire shared several images on X of what this could look like.
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Why It’s Important
Working with Epic Games wouldn't be a huge surprise given the friendly relationship between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Epic CEO Tim Sweeney. Musk has shown support for Sweeney in his battle against Apple over app store practices.
The Tesla Cybertruck vehicle also made its way into Fortnite and Rocket League last year.
Musk is also a lover of video games, and while many of the games he plays were not built with Unreal Engine, the Tesla CEO likely recognizes the value video game graphics could play in outlining shapes and what is happening outside a vehicle.
Unreal Engine was released in 1998 and is currently on its fifth version, Unreal Engine 5. A sixth version is in development and could be released in 2027 or 2028, according to TheVerge.
Several automotive companies are already working with Unreal Engine, including Rivian, Ford, GMC, Volvo and Lotus. Utilization by Tesla, especially on any of its autonomous vehicle efforts, could mark a big validation for Unreal Engine's use in the automotive sector.
The initial report is that this would only apply to select vehicle models, which could make the partnership less about the future and more about creating the best software for existing vehicle models already on the road.
Epic Games counts Sweeney as its largest shareholder with Tencent Holdings (OTC:TCEHY), Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) and Sony Group (NYSE:SONY) also owning stakes in the video game company. Sony is working on its own electric vehicles and could become a competitor of Tesla in the future.
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Photo: Model X interior courtesy of Tesla Inc.
