Teslas on the road without nature sounds
It was actually intended as a gimmick: Tesla's boombox, which can also play goat and fart sounds. The American traffic safety authority didn't find it funny at all.
Electric cars and hybrid vehicles are obliged in the USA to emit a warning sound when they are travelling at less than 30km/h. There is a similar law in Germany to better protect blind people in particular. At Tesla, this task is taken over by the Boombox, which warns pedestrians of possible collisions via the outside loudspeakers, as the cars are too quiet to be noticed at this speed. But Tesla also implemented unusual sounds such as applause, goat bleats and even farts. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) did not have much sympathy for this gimmick. They complained that the sounds made it harder to hear and identify the correct warning tone. Tesla is now obliged to recall about 580,000 cars and to remove the unusual sound with an update. After that, it should only be possible to activate it when the car is parked. Affected by the recall are the Tesla models S, X and Y from 2020 and Model 3 vehicles from 2017.
The recalls at Tesla have been piling up lately. In recent months, models have repeatedly had to have their software upgraded or modified. One model was criticised for not always stopping correctly at stop signs in self-driving mode, another for the windscreen restricting visibility when defrosted. But the hardware also caused problems: for example, on another model, the reversing camera was damaged when the boot lid was opened and closed.
Elon Musk showed little understanding for the ban on goat bleating and farting noises from his boombox. On Twitter, he called the NHTSA the "fun police" who forced him to remove the special sound.