• In order to alert cyclists and pedestrians of its presence, the Chinese-built Mazda CX-6e has an external speaker.
  
• The speaker can play selected warnings, but it also comes with a keyboard that lets drivers type out absolutely anything and have it read out loud.
  
• It can also directly broadcast anything the driver says, like a mobile PA system.

In the early days of EV adoption, one potential safety hazard flagged was their near-silent operation. It’d be all too easy to get backed over in a busy parking lot if you weren’t paying attention, and so reversing sounds were adopted by most manufacturers. Problem solved, right? Well, in China, engineers thought something more was needed.

The Mazda CX-6e is a fairly handsome crossover that wraps a Chinese-built EV powertrain in Mazda styling, but there's an additional audio warning system. It can be activated by the driver and consists of pre-programmed alerts that can be played outside the vehicle at the press of a button.

On one hand, being able to have your car say, “Please look up from your phone,” at a pedestrian stepping off the curb against the light seems like a good idea. And “You go ahead,” to a driver waiting to turn in front of you is a clearer direction than just both parties waving back and forth at each other while traffic backs up behind them.

However, the CX-6e is also sold in Australia, and when it arrived, some Australian journalists decided to test just what kind of guardrails were installed on this external audio system. Turns out, basically none.

Want to call someone an idiot from the comfort of your driver’s seat? No problem. Need a button that says, “Get out of the way, you blithering slug!” in a forceful monotone? Sure thing. Care to record your own voice yelling at fellow road users? It’ll do that. And the system will also read out your favorite profanities, no matter how filthy your mouth.

Obviously, the unintended uses of this feature are extremely funny, and frankly to be expected from the sort of country that produced a comedian like Jim Jefferies. However, wider use of this type of external loudspeaker is probably a net negative. Many people shouldn't even be trusted with an ordinary car horn, let alone a public address system.

Presumably, Mazda will soon issue an over-the-air patch if there are too many complaints, one that limits the messages that can be played over the system. Here’s hoping they leave in an Easter Egg that plays, “Tonight only, the fabulous Blues Brothers.”