Elon Musk Announces Custom Honks and Movement Sounds for Tesla Vehicles
With “fart & goat sounds too,” says Musk.
Elon Musk has announced some great new features that will be available soon in Tesla vehicles: customizable honks and movement sounds.
Recently taking to Twitter, Musk posted “customized horn & movement sounds (coconuts being one, of course) coming to Teslas soon,” teasing later under the same post the addition of fart sounds and goat bleats to the list of sounds available – “coconuts” is a reference to that scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail where Arthur rolls up to the walls of a castle mimicking the sound of horse hooves by banging coconuts together. Musk also mentioned that he might consider enabling custom sounds for upload.
The decision to add noises was informed by a study conducted in 2009 that found that blind pedestrians were more susceptible to accidents around EVs due to their minimal noise. According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration‘s (NHTSA) Pedestrian Enhancement Safety Act of 2010, electric cars are required to emit noises when moving from 0-19 MPH, helping warn nearby pedestrians. While other sounds like Jungle and Rainforest noises are being added to the full list, the inclusion of noisemakers to electric cars has been estimated by sources to save some 2,400 people from injuries as well as up to $320M in collisions.
Scroll below for a look at some tweets from Elon Musk about the new features.
Elsewhere, here’s an official look at the Aston Martin DBS GT Zagato.
💨 & 🐐 sounds too (also, of course)
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 6, 2019
