Does the Model S Have an External Speaker?

[MDMGSO47]

My wife came home a few minutes ago and as usual was talking on her cellphone via Bluetooth. She stopped in the driveway to finish the conversation, and the other person's conversation was being broadcast at full blast to the outside like it was on loudspeaker. She did not have the radio volume at a high level, and you could not hear my wife's part of the conversation on the outside. Does the car have an exterior speaker?

 

[trils0n]

No exterior speaker. You can just hear the interior speakers just fine from the outside. For whatever reason, the sound isn't isolated to the cabin. Same thing happens with music.

 

[Max*]

I agree with @trils0n. When I came home once, my wife asked me why I had the volume set so loud inside that she could hear it outside. I was confused, until we swapped and tried it out. There is no speaker on the outside (not that I'm aware of), but you can definitely hear what's going on.

So don't take any private phone calls in the car! (<--- cue jokes about "now that makes sense", etc.)

 

[BluestarE3]

No exterior speaker. You can just hear the interior speakers just fine from the outside. For whatever reason, the sound isn't isolated to the cabin. Same thing happens with music.

So can Tesla owners get an exemption to the upcoming NHTSA requirement for artificial noise makers on EVs if you promise to play music all the time while driving?

 

[whitex]

So can Tesla owners get an exemption to the upcoming NHTSA requirement for artificial noise makers on EVs if you promise to play music all the time while driving?

No, "it's not a bug, it's a feature" - once the requirement goes into effect, all Tesla cars will play "car-tones" through those speakers. So you see, this is just part of Tesla's foresight of the future.

But for now, you can still sneak up on pedestrians, just have to turn your radio off. All you need is Mercedes cross-hairs on the hood for better aiming.

 

[CHG-ON]

My sister yelled at me once when I was visiting her because I went out one night and decided to crank the tunes. She said the whole house was vibrating and I was in the driveway. I wonder if the AL body transmits it more...

 

[snellenr]

Sitting at the Springfield SuperCharger a few months ago, we couldn't avoid "attending" a teleconference with the lawyer in the Tesla next to us. I would have let him know, but we were nearly done charging...

 

[MDMGSO47]

Sitting at the Springfield SuperCharger a few months ago, we couldn't avoid "attending" a teleconference with the lawyer in the Tesla next to us. I would have let him know, but we were nearly done charging...

You should have told him. That was a serious ethics violation on his part.

 

[lunitiks]

To answer the question in the topic - yes the (new) cars have one external speaker, however this is a so called "pedestrian warning" speaker and should not generate any sound from phone calls or infotainment music. On my car (pre facelift) I dont have this "pedestrian warning" speaker, but I do have the same problem as everybody else here. Its almost like phone conversations radiate more efficiently to the outside than other sounds. My wife told me she probably hears my phone conversations from outside better than me on the inside, it's like it's taking place in a stadium arena

 

[shonline]

It is surprising how much radiated to the outside world. I listen at moderate to low volumes and my kids won't open the doors to get in until I turn it down. Embarrassed Dad is listening to Rush I guess...

 

[Inverse]

Tesla has a huge work to do in isolation, compared to the german brands that have a great work in isolation and finish quality

 

[Peteybabes]

has anybody installed dynamat sound-deadening behind the door panels yet?

i'm used to a really quiet Lexus with double pane windows and sound padding, and I think that the Tesla has more road noise than the Lexus...

i would consider dynamat in the door and under the carpet even...

 

[abikepeddler]

It is surprising how much radiated to the outside world. I listen at moderate to low volumes and my kids won't open the doors to get in until I turn it down. Embarrassed Dad is listening to Rush I guess...

NEVER be embarrassed listening to Rush! La Villa Strangiato at full pop is one of life's great pleasures....

 

[MDMGSO47]

NEVER be embarrassed listening to Rush! La Villa Strangiato at full pop is one of life's great pleasures....

Pavarotti's Nessun Dorma for me. Vinceroooooooo!
Or the guitar riff on Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb

 

[shonline]

Pavarotti's Nessun Dorma for me. Vinceroooooooo!
Or the guitar riff on Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb

Nobody ever sung that high B natural better!

 

[abikepeddler]

Pavarotti's Nessun Dorma for me. Vinceroooooooo!
Or the guitar riff on Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb

Fantastic!

 

[K-MTG]

Luckily on the the X the loud AC compressor resolves this issue

 

[abikepeddler]

To get us back on topic after I ran us all off the tracks I thought I'd throw in my opinion as to why cell conversations seem to eminate from the vehicle so clearly. This is something that has existed ever since the advent of hands-free technology in cars. What is occurring is the sound waves from voice communication are different than the sound waves from recorded music. Those voice-only sound waves both penetrate the exterior surface of the vehicle and even use that surface as a sort of harmonic amplifier. This is not just a Tesla thing. This is a Nissan Versa thing. It's a Bentley Continental thing. It's with any car you care to mention that uses its integrated sound system to transmit voice communications. The obvious way to avoid this is to turn down your voice calls being run through the vehicle's integrated phone system. In most cases once the sound is down below a certain threshold it stops using the vehicle's exterior skin as an amplifier and your calls, while still dominating from the vehicle as a sort of muttered gurgle, will remain private.

 

[BEEZR]

has anybody installed dynamat sound-deadening behind the door panels yet?

i'm used to a really quiet Lexus with double pane windows and sound padding, and I think that the Tesla has more road noise than the Lexus...

i would consider dynamat in the door and under the carpet even...

I would be interested in anyone's answer to this, and perhaps a how-to for the door panels...

 

[lunitiks]

A whole bunch of folks over at our norwegian EV forum have plastered their door panels with alubutyl, wave and the likes. It's my own personal project next summer. No doubt it's a worth while upgrade, even just to get some better interior music quality, reduce road noise etc. (The OEM sound dampening material is not very impressive, in the door panels it's mainly a fluffy cotton-like sheet. What you want, is dynamat extreme or something of that nature, i.e. tough, sticky and heavy materials to absorb/dampen that mid and mid/low frequency noise. That light, cotton'ish stuff works best against high freq sound.) Not sure how effective it is against "external phone conversation radiation", though. Perhaps this is a function of frameless windows also.

If ya'll want some extreme sound deadening pics, check this one out:
Photos of car interior taken apart for sound deadening