The cars of Tesla already talk

The acoustic warning device for pedestrians and cyclists of Tesla will also be able to emit other kinds of sounds, such as the voice message from the video published by Elon Musk

If the lift announces the floor we have stopped at, if the fridge warns us that we are out of milk, if the washing machine asks us about the spin speed for the chosen programme, or if the speaker that manages the home automation in our house can suggest environmental changes, why shouldn’t cars be able to address pedestrians and cyclists to let them know they are there? Especially if it is a Tesla.

Once again Elon Musk has used his Twitter profile to announce a new advance in technology that, before long, will be present in the future cars manufactured by the company he runs.

In this case, and as is usual for him, using the nickname ‘Buff Mage‘, he has published and shared a short video of just 6 seconds showing the moment when one of the Tesla Model 3 test cars of the technology development team fires off a guttural and decidedly unfriendly voice command at people walking near the vehicle.

Moreover, the chief executive of Tesla himself previews the content with a few brief words, saying that his vehicles will soon be able to communicate with people whenever desired, and that this is already a reality.

Teslas will soon talk to people if you want. This is real. pic.twitter.com/8AJdERX5qa

— Buff Mage (@elonmusk) January 12, 2020

Somewhat mockingly, the car’s synthesised voice uses the external speaker employed as the pedestrian acoustic warning device, which becomes mandatory from next year, 2021, to tell pedestrians near the car, not without rudeness, to step aside.

It is true that, given the nature of the video, it seems more like a joke by the test team and Musk himself than the definitive command that will ask pedestrians to stay out of the path of the Tesla.

Be that as it may, in this case the boss of the Californian brand shows that his plans to turn his cars into a technological arsenal on wheels are moving forward, and that it is only a matter of time before new systems or technologies are added that transform the classic concept of the car.

As he recently presented Lamborghini, introducing Amazon’s Alexa into his new Lamborghini Huracan Evo, Tesla will equip its cars with similar technology. An in-house system based on artificial intelligence capable of interacting both with its on-board users and with people in the immediate surroundings.