‘Fun police’, Tesla forced to hit mute on boombox feature after another big recall

Another Tesla recall was issued earlier this month. Not the most surprising news given how many times the words ‘Tesla’ and ‘recall’ have made headlines recently.

But the latest recall is worth mentioning. Namely, because it affects one of Tesla’s more quirky features – the boombox.

The boombox essentially turns later model Teslas into Bluetooth speakers. 

Tesla owners took full advantage of how liberal Tesla monitored the system. Everything from fake V8 sounds to fool the car next to you at the lights to fake ice-cream van music blasted at full tilt to antagonise children were seen and heard around the U.S.

Fart noises and the sounds of goats bleating were even added to the system by Tesla themselves.

But the fun stops there.

Over 578,000 Teslas are now subject to a recall, and the boombox feature will hit the mute button.

U.S. Federal law mandates electric cars have some sort of Pedestrian Warning Sound (PWS) system. However, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the sounds coming from Tesla’s boombox may obscure the actual PWS.

Basically, Tesla’s speakers are too loud that pedestrians might not hear the actual warning sounds.

What’s funny is the boombox feature was added to later model Teslas to comply with the PWS regulations. 

Unsurprisingly, Tesla’s lead man Elon Musk wasn’t a fan of the recall. He took to Twitter to call out safety regulators as “the fun police.”

Earlier this year, Tesla has had to recall several thousand vehicles for a self-driving feature that would make cars roll forward at stop signs.