Need a Tone and Beep Dictionary

[PianoAl]

I occasionally get tones or beeps, and I don't know what the car is trying to tell me. Has anyone posted a dictionary with all of the tones and what they mean?

For example, sometimes, and I think it's related to autopilot, I hear three descending tones (minor third, major third, corresponding to the first three notes of The Star Spangled Banner).

 

[RTPEV]

How long have you been driving your car?

This is not the first time I've seen this request, but I'm a bit puzzled by it as a reasonable amount of time spent driving the car makes the meanings of the beeps pretty understandable, particularly since most of them are a result of actions the driver is taking.

For example, as you put the car into Autopilot, you get a series of 3 beeps (ascending) indicating the car is in autopilot, and when you take the car out of autopilot manually, you get the 3 beeps (descending). If you forcefully take the car out of autopilot (by manually turning the wheel for example), you get a different set of tones...I think...but I'm not really sure, because it's not important for me to interpret the tones as if the car was R2D2. The tones were a result of my doing something, so it's more of an acknowledgement that what I was doing was understood by the car. Most of the time it's not the car telling me something that I need to act on.

The exceptions, of course, are the single beeps you get while parking or when in close proximity to other vehicles (at a drive through or a stop light) indicating that you are close to an obstacle. I think most cars have this kind of sound and it seems pretty obvious when it happens. The other is the "oh crap, wake up and take control immediately, I think you're about to hit the car in front of you or go through a red light" noise. There is no mistaking this one. You'll know it when you hear it!

 

[640k]

Should be pretty easy to inventory with the amount of active members on this sub. I'll start, feel free to correct or provide audio clips:

Single chime, echo: Doors Locked
Single, deeper chime, echo: Proximity Sensor
Higher tone, two beeps, no echo: Proximity Sensor (too close)
???: Proximity Sensor (STOP NOW)
Triple "game-show" beep, no echo: Compliance not followed (car not in drive/park, keycard not identified)
Lower chime, followed by upper chime, echo: Cruise Engaged
Upper chime, followed by lower chime, echo: Cruise Disengaged
Long, Low Beep, Repeating: Incoming Call

 

[PianoAl]

Nice. Keep them coming. Maybe I'll record them and create a page.

Yes, we've only had the car a week, but I think newbies like me could benefit from a dictionary.

 

[PianoAl]

Dit-Dah, Dit-Dah, Dit-Dah = Seatbelt not fastened.

 

[ZappCatt]

Dit-Dah, Dit-Dah, Dit-Dah = Seatbelt not fastened.

Is that the "Triple "game-show" beep, no echo:"?

 

[640k]

ok we're definitely going to need some high quality audio recordings here. lol.

 

[Transformer]

Apparently a repeating “boop, boop, boop” triplet means “look at the screen for a warning message like ‘trunk is open’”.

 

[Az_Rael]

For example, as you put the car into Autopilot, you get a series of 3 beeps (ascending) indicating the car is in autopilot,

I thought three tones was Navigate on Autopilot, two tones was regular Autopilot and the same in reverse.

 

[RTPEV]

I thought three tones was Navigate on Autopilot, two tones was regular Autopilot and the same in reverse.

I probably got it wrong...maybe that's my point. I don't need to keep all that information in my head like I am C3PO. When I push the stalk down twice, it makes some beeps. When I push it up to disengage Autopilot, it makes some beeps. When I get off the highway and NoA ends, it makes some beeps. Because I either took some kind of action myself or was paying attention to what is going on, I'm pretty sure what the beeps mean by context. Other than the forward collision warning (or similar) noises, which will definitely wake you up, there's nothing critical such that I need to interpret the beeps for meaning.

For sure, I get that a new owner of the vehicle may feel like it's a learning curve. I at least had the experience of having a lot of these new features thrown at me slowly over time so it wasn't like I hopped in the car the first time and it suddenly started beeping and bopping at me non-stop. I can see how that would be overwhelming. But like anything, after driving the car regularly, you get used to it.

 

[Zloth]

Yes, we've only had the car a week, but I think newbies like me could benefit from a dictionary.

That's for sure. Just got mine a couple of weeks ago, too. Right now, beeps mean "you need to read somewhere on the screen" if it isn't something I turned on myself.

I was driving this morning, made a left turn, got a loud bleeeeeet. No idea why. I was nowhere close to hitting anything. It was a two-lane turn so other cars were turning with me but I would be surprised if that confused it. I turned on the 'visualize stoplights' thing the day before so maybe it noticed the light I was turning under was red and bleeeeetted about that?

Whatever the case, it sure would have been good if the screen had done something big and obvious. Like fill the screen with a big, red circle if it really was a red light - something that would be obvious even with half a glance.

 

[PianoAl]

Okay, here's a tone sequence I hear, but I don't know what it's telling me. You can see it in this video (not mine) at 5:04. Three tones, E, F#, A:

The display changes from blue lines on the side of the car to one blue line extending out in front of the car.

There's no text. What's it telling me?

Thanks.

 

[RecognitionD]

Okay, here's a tone sequence I hear, but I don't know what it's telling me. You can see it in this video (not mine) at 5:04. Three tones, E, F#, A:

The display changes from blue lines on the side of the car to one blue line extending out in front of the car.

There's no text. What's it telling me?

Thanks.

Navigate on Autopilot is enabled.
It’s in the manual, page 88.
https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_3_owners_manual_north_america_en.pdf

 

[haroldo]

What do two beeps, same scale (neither ascending, nor descending), somewhat pleasing (like the type you hear on an airplane, they weren't angry) tones mean?
It's a poor indication of car design and user friendliness, that I've had a car for 5 months, had to search internet for ten minutes, and now have to post to find out what something means.

Note to Tesla engineers (assuming they're reading this...I know they're not) ... when car beeps, display a pop up description of the warning. Some beeps are not intuitive.

 

[DaveG_NJ]

Check your speed warning. That one was driving me crazy. I hadn't set it in a year but was playing with various settings while going for my Safety Score runs and must have set it to chime anytime I went 10 mph over any speed limit. There's no visual indicator that I'm aware of, just a single chime (I believe).

I agree - there should always be some visual clue in addition to the audio.

 

[haroldo]

Check your speed warning. That one was driving me crazy.

Thanks! I believe speed is one beep. The beeps occurred as I neared a stop sign, before an entry ramp to highway, while driving on FSD Beta (odd that autonomous driving would cause beeps)