NHTSA is investigating whether EVs should be retrofitted with pedestrian warning systems
Teslarati
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating whether hybrid-electric and electric vehicles from 1997 to present should have external speakers installed for pedestrian safety. The investigation was officially opened on January 27th, according to Teslarati.
In 2018, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 141 passed. This new safety standard required electric vehicles and hybrid-electric vehicles with a weight of 10,000 pounds (4,536 kilograms) or less to have a pedestrian warning system (PWS). A PWS is an external speaker on the vehicle that plays a sound when the vehicle is traveling at low speeds. This ensures pedestrians can hear vehicles if they’re nearby.
Sounds of the PWS While Driving
EVs and hybrid-electric vehicles can be extremely quiet, especially at low speeds. EVs can go unheard when approaching stop signs, crosswalks, and intersections, especially if there are other environmental sounds as well.
In July 2022, a petition was received by the NHTSA that urged the organization to require all EVs and hybrid-electric vehicles to have external noisemakers installed on them. Any vehicles without them, regardless of their manufacture date, would be considered to have a safety defect, according to the NHTSA’s Office of Defect Investigation.
“The petitioner asserts that hybrid and electric vehicles to which the standard does not apply should be found to contain a safety defect. In support of the petition, the petitioner includes findings contained in a bill introduced in the House of Representatives in 2009, the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, H.R. 734, 111th CONG. (2009).”
The passing of the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2011, says all vehicles should have a feature for “alerting blind and other pedestrians of the presence and operation of nearby motor vehicles to enable such pedestrians to travel safely and independently in urban, rural, and residential environments.”
Should the NHTSA agree and side with the petitioners, roughly 9.1 million cars across multiple manufacturers would be affected. These include Polestar, Tesla, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Honda, and more.
Tesla’s Pedestrian Warning System
Tesla started installing their PWS in their vehicles in 2019. This was a mandatory change for Tesla, as both the US and EU passed laws requiring electric vehicles to make some kind of noise due to their quiet sound levels at slower speeds. The noise is played continuously until speeds of 19mph are reached, per the US regulation.
“The Pedestrian Warning System (PWS) is an audible tone played when the vehicle is moving slowly (up to 19 mph) in either Drive or Reverse,” Tesla said at the time in a memo to staff. “The sound is played via a speaker mounted in the front fascia and alerts nearby pedestrians of the car’s presence in low-speed situations.”
Tesla started manufacturing vehicles for this long before the regulations went into effect. Tesla enthusiast and YouTuber DÆrik noticed the speaker grill on the front underside of his 2018 Performance Model 3.
PWS Also Adds Boombox Feature
In classic Tesla and Elon Musk fashion, they went the extra mile and added some playful goodies for owners to get a laugh out of. They called this new feature “Boombox,” which allowed sounds to be played using the vehicle’s external speaker. For example, while in park or drive, the vehicle was able to fart, play music, and any noises the user uploaded.
Unfortunately, the NHTSA thought this was distracting and banned the feature while in drive. It's currently available in most regions around the world while the vehicle is parked.
If NHTSA requires Tesla to retroactively install PWS in their vehicles built before 2019, owners will at least have the Boombox feature to look forward to. During Tesla's 2022 holiday update, Tesla also added the ability to use Emissions Testing Mode through the Tesla app. If your vehicle is equipped with the PWS, then the vehicle will play the farting sound through its external speaker. Otherwise, it will be played through the internal speakers - which isn't quite as much fun
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest Tesla news, upcoming features and software updates.
It was a rainy April 1st when a news-searching author went on a delve into the depths of April Fools to find fact from falsehood. And while we found a lot of fantastic jokes, we also found some good ideas.
So, with a shoutout to MarcoRP on X, whose April Fool’s Joke gave us a good run for our money for a couple of minutes, we thought to ourselves - what would a Cybercab Charging Station / Cleaning Hub really look like?
Cybercab Wireless Charging Sites
Now, before continuing, we’d like to point out that the image up top is a joke from Marco - it isn’t an accurate or real site map submission from Tesla. However, it gave us the impetus to think critically about what is required for a Robotaxi fleet, based primarily on the Cybercab, to be able to service a city.
Requirements
Tesla will likely need to charge a small fleet of Cybercabs at a single time and in a single place. That means that the site needs to be large enough to cover a major metro area while also still being compact enough to not cost too much money to build out.
In addition, we need to factor in charge times. The Cybercab is likely to launch with a battery around 50 kWh, which will result in a range of approximately 300 miles. With that much range, the average Cybercab may not need to charge more than once or at all during daytime shifts, so instead, most of the vehicles will charge overnight.
MarcoRP
Math and Charge Times
The overnight charging means that most of these vehicles could be charged slowly. When we did some back-of-the-napkin math last year, we determined that Tesla’s wireless charger will likely peak around 17 kW (for comparison, Tesla’s Wall Connector at 32 amps charges at about 7 kW). If we scale Tesla’s wireless charger down slightly to 10 kW, accounting for some energy loss and the potential size of the site, that means a Cybercab will be able to charge in about 5 hours.
Tesla’s upcoming V4 Supercharger unit can currently handle 1.5MW per cabinet, but this slower-speed charging is A/C, not DC, which means there is a step-down loss of about 3-5%. Let’s make that a comfortable 10% for any other overages, but we can estimate around 1.35MW of power. That 1.3MW will easily handle charging up to 100 Cybercabs at once - all wirelessly, using Tesla’s unique beam-forming and beam-steering technology to keep efficiency high at every single stall.
Within about 5 hours, a whole fleet of 100 Cybercabs could be charged overnight when electricity rates are cheaper and still be out in time for the morning commute.
While this is all just hypothetical, it really does make sense that Tesla will be establishing these sites that won’t require much space or a ton of energy.
Tesla recently curtained off a large section of the parking garage at Giga Texas, as well as some of their chargers on the eastern end of the facility, leading us to believe they may just be testing this at scale internally.
There’s a lot to look forward to with Tesla’s V4 Supercharger deployment coming this year and with Robotaxi launching in just a couple of months.
Tesla released its Q1 2025 delivery and production numbers this morning, reporting 336,681 vehicles delivered and 362,615 produced—marking the company’s weakest quarter since 2022. Deliveries declined 13% year-over-year and fell well short of Wall Street estimates, which ranged from 360,000 to 370,000. Some analysts had forecast as many as 407,000 units.
Despite the shortfall, Tesla stock is actually up about 4% this morning, not only suggesting the market had already priced in weaker performance, but that this may be seen as the low point for the company. Tesla began delivering its refreshed Model Y in March, and production across all four Gigafactories was impacted by several weeks of downtime as Tesla retooled lines to accommodate the newer model. However, there’s no doubt that there is some brand impact from Elon Musk.
Comparing Numbers
Most of the deliveries—323,800 units—came from the Model 3 and Model Y lineup, while the “Other Models” category (including the Cybertruck, Model S, and Model X) accounted for 12,881 deliveries. That’s a 31% drop for Model 3/Y and a sharper 45% drop for the Other Models category compared to the previous quarter. However, comparing it to a more applicable Q1 2024, these numbers are only down about 13% for the Model 3/Y and down about 24% for the Model S/X and Cybertruck.
In terms of production, Tesla built 345,454 Model 3/Y vehicles and 17,161 from its “Other Models” line. The company attributed the production drop to the Model Y changeover but said the ramp is “going well.” This still leaves a large gap between production and delivery numbers, although they may not be as large as many had feared.
Q1 2025
Q1 2024
Q4 2024
Model 3/Y Deliveries
323,800
369,783
471,930
Model 3/Y Production
345,454
412,376
436,718
Other Models Deliveries
12,881
17,027
23,640
Other Models Production
17,161
20,995
22,727
Total Deliveries
336,681
386,810
495,570
Total Production
362,615
433,371
459,445
Cybertruck
One major weak point in Tesla’s numbers seems to be Cybertruck deliveries. While Tesla previously expected the Cybertruck to sell more than 250k units per year, we’re already seeing a decline in numbers. This is likely due to several factors, including the higher-than-expected price point of the truck, the unavailability of the RWD model, and the Cybertruck’s polarizing design, which may attract unwanted attention right now.
While the Cybertruck was ramping up production in 2024, making the lower numbers reasonable, the deliveries for Q1 2025 dropped drastically compared to the previous quarter. Cybertruck deliveries are estimated to be in the 5- 6k unit range for the quarter.
The good news to take away here is that the Single Motor variant of the Cybertruck appears to be nearing release. The price of the RWD version is expected to be about $60k USD before any incentives.
Q1 Earnings Call
Tesla announced their quarterly numbers this morning and posted on social media that they’ll live stream their Earnings Call on April 22nd.
This post was later edited to change “Q1 Earnings Call” to “Q1 Company Update.” It’s not clear whether there’s any significance in this change, but it could mean that Tesla has more to announce during the call.
The Company Update will occur on April 22nd at 2:30 PM PT / 5:30 PM ET. The standard Q&A session with executives and Musk is expected to follow the release of additional financial results for the quarter.
Tesla is set to launch its long-awaited Robotaxi service in June, and a cheaper, mass-market model is also planned for this year. With delivery numbers coming in soft and the refreshed Model Y just hitting the road, all eyes will be on forward-looking commentary during the update.
