Tesla Cars Banned From Farting at Pedestrians: No Way, Says US Gov’t!
Poof goes the farting fun. Tesla cars offered a Boombox feature, which enabled drivers to play sounds outside of the vehicle. Among other things, this includes fart sounds with the “Emissions Testing Mode.” Unsurprisingly, the fart feature is very popular with Tesla drivers, given the age-old love of flatulence humor. You can find an endless collection of videos on YouTube of Tesla drivers pranking unsuspecting pedestrians with loud farts blasting from their vehicles. However, the U.S. government says, “No way, no more.” In a software recall earlier this year, it banned Tesla cars from farting at pedestrians.
Why can’t Tesla cars fart at pedestrians anymore?
Pour one out for the fart lovers of the world. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt from a fart blasting at them from a Tesla — or so says U.S government regulators (in a manner of speaking).
“More broadly speaking,” as detailed by INPUT, “drivers can’t use their vehicles’ ‘Boombox’ option at all anymore.” Boombox enables drivers to play pre-recorded sounds and music through the front external speakers. Experts initially touted Boombox as “a way to help increase pedestrian visibility via warning sounds.”
However, with the farts and other sounds, Tesla upped the fun factor. The EV automaker went wild with Boombox. Tesla calls the fart feature “Emissions Testing Mode,” but most people call it “Fart Mode.”
CNN reported that the “National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 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.”
Elon Musk derided the NHTSA decision to ban the farting Teslas and other sounds with the Boombox feature. In a tweet, he wrote, “The fun police made us do it (sigh).”
Tesla Emissions Testing Mode has a wide variety of farts
If you’re a fart aficionado, you would love the Tesla Emissions Testing Mode. It has a wide variety of farts. Also, each fart has a unique name. As detailed by The Drive, this includes:
- Short Shorts Ripper: a very short fart, and a nod to the Elon Musk-despised investors that try to short Tesla stock
- Falcon Heavy: A loud and powerful fart, named after the rocket from Musk’s SpaceX company
- Neurastink: a “generic-sounding fart,” named after NeuraLink, another Musk-owned company
- Boring: a “rumbly” fart, named after The Boring Company, yet another Musk-owned company
- Not a Fart: a “two-part toot,” which is a nod to The Boring Company’s “Not-a-Flamethrower”
- Ludicrous Fart: a long, glorious fart, named after Ludicrous Mode, Tesla’s high-performance mode for very quick acceleration
- I’m So Random: A Tesla vehicle picks one of the above farts at random.
If there’s one takeaway from this list, it’s that Elon Musk loves farts. With so many references to his various companies for these farts, he undoubtedly had a role in naming them. It’s unknown if the farts in Emissions Testing Mode are authentic farts from Musk himself — or someone else (or computer-generated).
Why do people find farting Teslas — and farts in general — to be so funny?
The farting Tesla Boombox feature was very popular. Many people are likely disappointed about its demise. But why do people find farting Teslas — and farts in general — to be so funny?
Kids, in particular, often find farts to be very funny. However, many adults laugh at the sound of flatulence as well. I knew a man that was so obsessed with flatulence that he recorded his frequently-farting mother and mixed all of these fart sounds into an elaborately layered fart song.
While farting itself is lowbrow humor, there are psychological reasons for why it’s so amusing to people. One reason people find farts to be funny is that a fart, like most humor, is unexpected. It often has an element of surprise. Also, farts can be mysterious, for sometimes people don’t know who farted. The ensuing farting “blame-game” adds to the humor as well. Additionally, farts, like many jokes, often break rules and social conventions — and, therefore, appeal to people’s sense of rebellion.
The pedestrian-pranking Tesla farting fun is gone, though. The U.S. government banned it via the NHTSA. However, the farting Teslas live on with endless stinky gloriousness on YouTube. If you need a “release” from your stress, then kick back, relax, and enjoy some laughs by watching videos of Teslas farting at pedestrians.
