Coming soon to all Tesla models equipped with an external speaker is a new feature that will allow your car to make loud farting sounds outside the vehicle. This new feature addition has been confirmed by Elon’s recent tweet earlier in March.
According to Elon's tweet, the fart sound, which is currently a feature within Tesla’s Toybox, will require you to say “Fart in their general direction.”
Emissions Toybox feature
Currently, the Toybox feature is housed within the Entertainment section of the car's infotainment system.
One of the features available in the Toybox is Emissions Testing Mode. It lets the car play random fart noises through its speakers.
You can choose which individual speaker the sound comes from, giving the impression that the fart sound is coming from a specific individual or seat.
You can also have your car do things like play the Holiday Show, switch on Mars Mode, which puts the vehicle in a Martian landscape, and even turn on Romance Mode, which allows you to cozy up with your loved ones by the virtual fireplace.
How does Tesla play sounds on the exterior of the vehicle?
With Tesla continuing to enhance the entertainment features of the vehicle, the new fart feature will utilize the vehicles Pedestrian Warning System (PWS), which plays media externally on cars. When Tesla first started including the PWS speaker in cars back in 2019, it was only designed to play a low humming sound while at low speeds when either in drive or reverse. It was added to cars to comply with US regulations.
With this new feature, Tesla likely will also let the sound play on the internal speakers if your vehicle is not equipped with a PWS.
Coming soon, if you want your car to make a loud farting sound from the external speaker, just say “Fart in their general direction!”
Tesla has added various voice commands to enhance the driver’s experience, but this will be one of the few voice commands that are Toybox specific. Another popular voice command tied to a Toybox feature is "Enable Santa Mode, " which will start Santa Mode.
No. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA), Tesla faced a software-based recall that Elon Musk blames the “fun police.” The NHSTA is unhappy that Tesla allowed drivers to play sounds like a fart noise on an external speaker. Federal officials said it’s a huge safety issue for pedestrians who might not interpret those “fun” sounds as a proper warning system or alert to pedestrians.
Tesla has since released a firmware update to disable the Boombox feature while driving. As of update 2022.8, you can no longer use Boombox while in drive if you're in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
When this feature is released, it’ll be a great addition to the Emissions Toybox feature and, most importantly, make owning a Tesla even more entertaining. Stay tuned for the new fart feature in an upcoming update.
Tesla has provided information on its delivery and production numbers for Q2 2024 today.
One of the biggest things of note is the 9.4GWh of energy storage products - Megapacks and Powerwalls - deployed in Q2, which is the highest deployment in a single quarter. Tesla deployed 4.05GWh last quarter, so this more than doubles their deployments compared to Q1.
Vehicle Numbers
Tesla produced approximately 411,000 vehicles and delivered 444,000 in the second quarter of 2024, with the vast majority being the Model 3 and Model Y, as expected. This largely beat analyst expectations and TSLA was up 10.20% on the day.
There was a slowdown in production, seen in China, and during the tooling-up phases for Cybertruck and the Model 3 Performance. With Semi also entering High-Volume Production, and work ongoing for a new supercomputer cluster, Tesla has been making quite a few capital expenditures that have impacted vehicle productivity.
See the chart below for specifics on vehicle production and deliveries.
Tesla's production and deliveries breakdown.
Not a Tesla App
With the general cooling of the EV Market, Tesla has managed to have one of their best quarters ever. Q2 of 2024 ranks as Tesla’s third-best quarter. Only in Q2 of 2023 (466k vehicles) and Q4 of 2023 (485k vehicles) has Tesla delivered more vehicles. The stock has surged, passing the $230 mark for the first time since early January.
Investors are taking the news well, and Tesla expects to continue its growth as the leading EV manufacturer based on Elon Musk’s words during the 2024 Shareholder Meeting, with a big focus on autonomy.
A new patent claimed by Tesla has revealed some additional details on the upcoming Robotaxi’s Sanitization System – which will automatically sanitize enclosed spaces. It discusses how Tesla expects to use this system, including some hints on the upcoming Robotaxi app. Rimac also recently announced their upcoming robotaxi, which looks a lot like what we may see in Tesla’s Cybercab.
Most interesting is that this patent isn’t strictly based on some specific systems in the Robotaxi itself but is rather based upon an overall routine and process for sanitizing enclosed spaces that are shared among multiple people, particularly around vehicle interiors. This means it is likely applicable to all of Tesla’s vehicles.
You can view the entire patent here, although we went through it all so you wouldn’t have to.
Sanitization
The sanitization patent is focused on observing and analyzing the conditions of the closed space and then generating a sanitization routine based on the conditions, and then finally executing it. This essentially means that the system will scan a vehicle, determine what kind of cleaning is required, and then conduct that cleaning.
Analysis - Interior & Exterior
Let’s take a look at the analysis portion first. There are a few key detection parameters – ambient temperature, humidity, the presence of pathogens or unclean air, and the presence or absence of certain conditions in the enclosed environment. Using a multitude of sensor data, including some from the vehicle itself, the system will create a sanitization plan.
The robotaxi's interior
Not a Tesla App
The sanitization plan doesn’t just include the interior of the vehicle – but can also consider external parameters like weather and vehicle usage history. Rain, snow, and mud could be some pretty big factors for a Robotaxi cleanup, and taking these into account is essential.
How It’ll Clean
Once the plan is generated, the system will utilize various sanitization routines, based on the plan that was generated. This can include using the HVAC systems, using UV lighting, using steam generators, and a few other processes. The system can also take into account whether the sanitization process can be accomplished by the resources available – e.g. if there is a human or humanoid robot available to accomplish some of the tasks.
There are a few basic methods described in the patent on how Tesla expects to sanitize vehicles, including blowing warm air toward the steering wheel, doors and windows, and the central display to sanitize. It also has a method to expose various parts of the vehicle, including the seats and seatbelts, to a sanitizing UV light.
There are some interesting and unique methods – using active or passive elements to create heat and sanitizing surfaces like the central touchscreen. That’s not all – the patent also talks about tilting the vehicle’s central display to reflect the sanitizing UV light around the vehicle. Tesla has some unique ideas on how to implement its automated sanitization process.
If there’s additional sanitization needed, the system can cooperate with external service robots (possibly Tesla’s Optimus), to sanitize the interior and exterior of the vehicle. It can also direct the Full Self Driving system to adjust the vehicle’s orientation, exposing certain parts of the interior to sunlight.
When and Where to Sanitize
Tesla expects this sanitization routine to begin running immediately after a passenger exits the vehicle, reducing downtime as much as possible between potential passengers. If the sanitization system identifies that deeper cleaning is needed, the system will redirect the vehicle in need of cleaning to a cleaning location, while another vehicle will be directed to the next potential passenger.
There are some Robotaxi-unique features, such as a disinfecting spray system and special disinfecting UV light that are not present in any of Tesla’s current vehicles. Whether these current vehicles will receive a refit or a refresh to include these features remains up in the air at this time, however, the patent did notably use the Model Y as the figure vehicle.
Some other features, such as using humidity, temperature, seatbelt retractors, seat adjustment motors, and motorized vents – are already in every Tesla vehicle.
Killing Germs
One of the most unique things about this patent is Tesla has looked at various airborne pathogens – such as SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), amongst others, and identified what temperatures and humidities will kill these off. It will use this information to change the ambient environment in the vehicle to one unsuitable for pathogens to survive, helping to prevent illnesses from transferring from one passenger to the next.
We’re going to see some unique things at Tesla’s Robotaxi unveiling on 8/8, and some more details of how this system functions will probably come up then. Sanitization of Robotaxis is absolutely one of the key steps that will help to build Tesla’s ambitious Robotaxi fleet – and we’re hoping to see more on how they expect to charge Robotaxis in the upcoming weeks.
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