Elon Musk slams vehicle regulator as ‘fun police’ after Tesla cars recalled over safety concerns

The world’s richest man has taken to social media to slam regulators who recalled more than half a million Tesla cars over safety concerns.

Tesla founder Elon Musk has slammed the regulators who forced him to recall his electronic vehicles over safety concerns.

In a tweet on Sunday, Mr Musk labelled the vehicle watchdog as “fun police” for forcing him to call back his product.

“What was the rationale behind the Boombox recall?” a follower asked him on Twitter.

“The fun police made us do it (sigh),” Mr Musk responded.

Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that more than a half a million Tesla cars contained a “Boombox” feature that drowned out audible warnings for pedestrians, which breached safety standards in the US.

This prompted a recall of a whopping 578,600 cars.

It’s the fourth recall made public in two weeks, according to AFP, and the eleventh recall in the last four months in what is shaping up to be a turbulent time for the billion-dollar company.

The fun police made us do it (sigh)

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 13, 2022

Instead of car owners needing to return to a service station to have the issue resolved, Tesla plans to remotely update its software to fix the Boombox problem.

The update will disable the Boombox feature when the vehicle is in drive, reverse or neutral mode.

NHTSA asked for information last month to see if the Boombox feature met safety requirements.

The recall is a voluntary decision from Tesla after weeks of correspondence with the regulator.

NHTSA has stepped up its scrutiny of Tesla in recent months, including launching an investigation after several crashes and requesting more information from the company.

And Mr Musk is not pleased.

Elon Musk has hit back after yet another recall for his electric vehicle company. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

Hundreds of thousands of Tesla cars have been recalled over safety concerns. Picture: John Thys/AFP

It’s not the first time the richest man in the world has whinged about regulators.

He’s not a huge fan of the US Securities and Investment Exchange (SEC).

In 2018, he famously commented: “I want to be clear. I do not respect the SEC.”

The SEC tried to sue him for securities fraud that same year.

This caused him to come up with the derisive term “Shortseller Enrichment Commission” to describe the SEC.

That same year, Mr Musk hung up on the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board when they were discussing a fatal crash that involved a Tesla on the autopilot mode.

– With AFP