Farting Tesla


A car is not a toy.

As such, a car needs to safely and efficiently warn pedestrians, bikers, animals, and other drivers of potential danger.

That said, I'm glad to see Tesla's / Elon's stupid design decision being overturned:

Tesla is recalling over 500,000 vehicles in the United States due to its Boombox feature, a 2020 update that allows drivers to play sounds such a bleating goat or a fart noise outside the vehicle.


The Boombox feature allowed drivers to play preset or custom sounds from an external speaker while the vehicle is moving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the Boombox feature may hinder pedestrians' ability to hear a mandatory warning sound, increasing the risk of a crash. The pedestrian warnings are required in all electric and hybrid vehicles, the NHTSA said, because EVs are quieter than cars with internal combustion engines.




The solution - which I feel is a reasonable one:

Tesla will deploy an OTA firmware release to affected vehicles that will disable the Boombox functionality when the vehicle is in Drive, Neutral, and Reverse modes.




The last thing that our roads and highways need is another stupid and unnecessary driver-distracting trinket.  Glad the NHTSA put a quick stop to this one.  But, what'll be next?


Grace & Peace & Love to you all -

Matt

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