As electric cars become more common on our roads, their danger to pedestrians goes up. I mean, with EVs being near-silent, it's easy for someone crossing a street to totally misjudge how fast one is going or not notice that it's there at all.
In an effort to combat this, many hybrids and EVs are adopting specific sounds to alert pedestrians and cyclists to their presence. Toyota's RAV4 hybrid, for example, makes a weird choir-of-angels-type noise when you reverse.
Tesla is getting in on the fun of EV pedestrian warning sounds, at least with the Model 3, before the US government makes them mandatory -- something that's supposed to happen next year, courtesy of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Here's the sound it makes while in reversehttps://t.co/iPFtlg2uz1
— Tesla Owners Online (@Model3Owners) September 9, 2019
Now, before you get all excited, Tesla doesn't seem to be using this as an opportunity to repurpose "Fart Mode," but it is using some neat sounds -- especially in reverse -- if these clips from the Model 3 Owners Online twitter account are to be believed.
In an article article posted Tuesday, Teslarati claims that all Model 3s produced after Sept. 1 have the requisite exterior speaker for the pedestrian alert system installed, but we're still waiting on official confirmation from Tesla on that.
