You probably wait in your car a lot more than you realize. I pick up friends to go various places as I’m usually the designated driver, I’m often waiting out in the parking lot for people to come out. It may only be a few minutes, but a lot of the regular built in games (not steam) will load up in just a minute or so and occupy that time.
Or waiting at the cell phone lot to pick people up from the airport.
Charging waiting is likely the most common, but unlike what most non-EV drivers seem to think most of those stops are only about 15 minutes on a road trip. You aren’t charging up fully each time, you just charge up for the next leg, and a buffer, and the car calculates it all for you. Otherwise you really should have a home charging solution, it’s cheaper and you always have a full charge you don’t need to think about. If for some reason you need to fully charge at a supercharger, that can take longer. Just like your phone can charge to 50-70% super quickly and the rest is slow, the car battery is similar, just much larger capacity. So that can take a while longer. The longest I’ve ever had to charge though for a nearly full battery from about 20% was 40 minutes. And that was because I was going to a very remote area, away from major highways with no charging infrastructure, so I made sure I had enough to make it back.
Most people probably would just play on their phones, but the in car games just provide an alternative. Just like Netflix and the other streaming services in the car. They’re there for those waiting times, however infrequent they may be.
When you add it all up, it makes more sense. I honestly think i spend little time in vehicles compared to most people though–a side effect of working remotely most of the time. And even when I do wait, I typically read a book, check out Lemmy, Duolingo, etc. I can see why some folks might want to play a game on the screen. Provided that it only ever works while parked, it makes sense.
Yeah it only works when parked. You can’t even shift into drive without closing the games.
On the newer vehicles with a screen in the rear seats, the games may work when driving. I don’t have one of those to know for sure, but I think those allow at least things like Netflix in the back for child entertainment.