It appears that the new Tesla Model 3 cars have a built-in "speaker grille" - is it for the mandated electric car sounds?
(Tesla Model 3 ready to meet regulations)
The long-delayed rules, which were first demanded by Congress in 2010, will require automakers like Tesla Inc, Nissan Motor Co and General Motors Co to add sounds to vehicles when they are moving at speeds of up to 18.6 miles per hour (30 km per hour) to help prevent injuries among pedestrians, cyclists and the blind.
The regulation requires the sounds be added to all “quiet” vehicles by September 2020.
Science fiction Grandmaster Robert Heinlein predicted this in his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, introducing the idea of an automotive sound tape for otherwise silent cars.
Starting about 2150 or a little bit earlier... supreme swank for an Iowa farmer was to own and drive a working replica of a twentieth century "automobile" personal transport vehicle. Of course not a vehicle moved by means of internal explosions of a derivative of rock oil: Even the People's Republic of South Africa had laws against placing poisons in the air. But with its Shipstone concealed and a sound tape to supply the noise of a soi-disant "IC" engine, the difference between a working replica and a real "automobile" was not readily apparent.
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