Initial ideas of a directional horn system are being discussed amongst Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his followers on Twitter. The system would likely allow a horn to be played from the rear speaker system that comes standard on all Tesla vehicles manufactured after September 1.
Musk released his idea of a variety of horn and noisemaker sounds on October 6 that could be made available for Tesla owners everywhere. The addition of these noises would allow for Tesla owners to customize their vehicles in an even more unique sense, as it would allow electric car drivers to select exactly how their vehicles’ pedestrian noisemakers will sound like.
Wells Adams, most notably known as a contestant on Season 12 of the popular reality TV show The Bachelorette, replied to Musk’s tweet regarding noisemaker and horn noises. In his message, the reality TV star suggested some points for improvement. “I want directional horns. You can’t honk backwards. That’s annoying, especially when you’re trying to back out of a space and someone behind you is stupid,” he said.
Tesla’s vehicles currently utilize a traditional horn noise that emits from the front of the vehicle. Thus, Tesla’s directional horns would act as not only an accessibility feature but a safety feature as well. These would be especially helpful in busy parking lots at stores vehicles are constantly jostling for parking spots and people are walking around without much worry of cars stopping for them.
Backing out of a spot in a busy lot is dangerous and if a Tesla vehicle is next to a loud car equipped with an internal combustion engine, it is likely that someone would not hear a horn. Installing a horn sound in the rear of a vehicle would increase awareness for other drivers, and if paired with Tesla “Smart Summon” or the upcoming “Smart Parking”, parking lots could ultimately become safer than ever for drivers and pedestrians.
Assuming that the horn would be emitted from the speaker that will be on every Tesla vehicle that complies with the Pedestrian Enhancement Saftey Act, the upcoming feature would likely be a simple addition for Tesla. We can anticipate that drivers would be able to take advantage of a new directional horn system in upcoming software updates that the Silicon Valley-based car maker would release to its fleet.