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'Holiday Update' Finally Brings Steam to Certain Tesla Vehicles

In a video, Tesla shows off the Steam integration by running the hit game Cyberpunk 2077.

 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

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Owners of certain Teslas can now run Steam games inside their vehicles.

On Tuesday, Tesla rolled out a “holiday update” for the electric cars that includes integration with the Steam marketplace, best known for selling PC games

In a video, the company showed off the feature by running Cyberpunk 2077 on the vehicle’s touch-screen display, which can connect to a Bluetooth controller. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been teasing the Steam integration for months now. However, the Steam marketplace is only available on “new Model S and X vehicles,” according to the company’s announcement. 

The holiday update release notes add: “This feature is available on Model S and X (year 2022+) with 16GB DDR memory, and requires Premium Connectivity,” which costs $9.99 per month. 

Model S and X vehicles can run Steam due to their AMD Ryzen processors, which come with a built-in GPU. However the cars don't run the Windows version of Steam. Instead, the release notes suggest the company is rolling out the Linux-based version found on the Steam Deck.  

As a result, the Steam integration is designed to run games that’ve been verified for the Steam Deck. The release notes add: “With Steam’s cloud synchronization, resume your game from your Tesla or any Steam device. To access Steam, tap the Application Launcher > Arcade.”

The holiday update also includes integration with the video-conferencing app Zoom and Apple Music while featuring a new “Dog mode” that lets owners access the Tesla’s cabin camera to keep tabs on a pet inside while they’re away from their cars.

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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