Musk blames ‘fun police’ for recall of feature that makes fart and goat noises

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN Business

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.

On Twitter, Musk blamed the recall on the “fun police.”

This is Tesla’s fourth recall in two weeks, this time for 578,607 vehicles. The EV maker is set to release a firmware that will disable the feature in drive, neutral and reverse modes.

The affected vehicles are the 2020-2022 Model S, Model X, Model Y and certain 2017-22 Model 3s. The complaint was filed in January 2021, and had been under review as the electric car company was “further demonstrating and defending the tests,” the safety recall report said.

Last week, Tesla recalled 817,143 vehicles due to a chime that would not always sound if a driver’s seat belt was unbuckled. And just prior to that, the company recalled its “full self-driving” software, which had been programmed to roll through stop signs in certain circumstances.

Tesla’s driver assist system Autopilot and its in-vehicle video game feature have also been under NHTSA scrutiny.

CNN Business’ Matt McFarland contributed to this report.

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