Wed
Feb 16 2022
11:44 am
Elon Musk's Tesla safety recall
By: bizgrrl

From CNN,

"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."

Musk pooh poohs the recall.

"This is Tesla's fourth recall in two weeks."

I don't know why anyone buys a Tesla. Sure, some may think they look good and are "cool". But, the purchase incites his bad behavior.

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KevinMurphy's picture

Agreed but it's not all bad

Submitted by KevinMurphy on Wed, 2022/02/16 - 4:51pm.

As a Tesla owner - I bought and like mine for a lot of the base features of the car - never having to visit a gas station, handling, comfort (the front seats are incredibly person-friendly and comfortable).

Tesla used to be a very fast innovator with their software - both the driving tech (early autopilot capabilities, the UI, etc) and the entertainment tech. However, in the last 2 years, the software team has focused on more toys and distractions. The boombox feature is one of those that is on my list of "Geez, why are they spending time on this?" It's dumb. So is the Christmas lights show they introduced.

I think a lot of Tesla owners are in the same boat. We're scratching our heads. Yes, there are YouTubers and such pumping these features. But that's to get views. When you own it, you quickly move to "hmmm. That's novel. But I'm never going to use that."

Gosh, I really wish they would finish up their autopilot work and continue to innovate on the UI.

Factchecker's picture

It's complicated

Submitted by Factchecker on Fri, 2022/02/18 - 3:03pm.

Generally agree with Kevin, though things like the Xmas light show don't seem to have much of a downside to me. I don't think this gimmick is hazardous or distracts from the company's focus, and it does provide positive PR.

I'm done with Elon for numerous reasons (see Twitter, where only the most recent example was when he deleted a joke comparing Justin Trudeau to Hitler), but the cars are still great and have significant advantages over other EVs. The two big ones for me are that they are generally the most efficient in terms of energy use per mile, and the Tesla Supercharging network is much better than the fast charge network the rest of the industry has adopted. They (the chargers) are reliable and have numerous stalls at the ready. I wouldn't trust the third party networks, though I hope that changes.

GM killed the wonderful Volt, outsourced much of the Bolt and left it as a half-baked product. They're still mostly a producer of giant SUVs and pickups that guzzle the most fossil fuels. The EV Hummer is almost as obscene as the original.

Then there's Toyota, which was recently identified as the third largest corporation lobbying against climate policies. They're no friend of the planet.

Anyway, this recall per se seems fairly mundane. All carmakers suffer from these from time to time.

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