The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) rejected a 2019 proposal that would have let drivers install “any number of compliant sounds” on hybrid EV models produced in the U.S., according to Automotive News.
The regulator said on Tuesday that the proposal wouldn’t be approved due to a “lack of supporting data.”
In a statement, the NHTSA said, “The great majority of the comments on the [Notice of Proposed Rule-Making], including those submitted by advocacy organizations for the blind and by people who are blind or who have low vision, did not favor the proposal to allow hybrid and electric vehicles to have an unlimited number of different pedestrian alert sounds.”
The agency continued, “Most of those comments favored more uniformity, rather than less, in the number and types of alert sounds allowed.”
NHTSA Releases Driver-Assist Car Crash Data for First Time, Admits it Lacks Context https://t.co/yJl8IvRrr1
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) June 15, 2022
The 2019 proposal came as a response to a petition sent to the NHTSA in 2017, in a joint effort from the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and Global Automakers, pressing the agency to adopt a larger suite of pedestrian alert sounds for drivers to choose from.
Tesla was asked by the NHTSA to fix its Boombox feature, which would previously allow drivers to select sounds to play while driving.
Tesla went on to deploy a software update to fix the feature after the agency noted that the sounds could block out audible pedestrian warnings.
