In many parts of the world, hearing is almost as important as vision, when it comes to traffic safety . In Asia and Middle East (don't know about Africa), many people don't even bother to turn their head when changing lanes: They rely solely on sound, and mirrors (if at all). In other ways, they change lane rather slowly, and if no honking is heard, well then the lane was clear! Try to enter "horn please" or "horn ok please" in google image search, and you get the picture, how it works in places like India. People are literally painting signs on the back of their vehicles where they admit they don't look where they are going, so please honk to let your presence known. Duh!
The same goes for pedestrians - many people will not look out if they don't hear any cars close by. I predict a number of accidents in these regions in particular, where might of way takes precedence over right of way, and sound is favoured over looking out. The larger and noisier a vehicle is, the more other vehicles will yield - simple physics applied! So if there is no noise, I probably don't have to look out.
There needs to be some device - either by Tesla or third party - which uses speed, acceleration and other inputs from driving habits, to detect in what environment the car is driving, and for that trigger a sound, if any. Maybe even input from GPS and map data, to say whether it is a city, country or highway environment. Add to that time of day, and ambient noise measurement, to adjust the level of whatever sound is produced. There is no need for a super loud BEEP BEEP BEEP at 3 am, when all around is quiet.
There could be directional speakers, one in the front, as well as one in the rear (only active when going in reverse). Sideways speakers would be required only in markets where people tend not to look when changing lanes (!!!)
Instead of having a multitude of "ring tones" available, there should be a few, standardised sounds used by EVs, or even other cars. It does not have to be resembling an ICE engine, but some sound which people will instantly relate to a vehicle moving. Imagine an airport, with all it's near-silent electric bikes and carts - if they didn't carry a beeper, lot's more people would be hit by them.
If Tesla doesn't build it, third party suppliers will.
It could even be driven by a smart phone, using GPS, microphone, map data, acceleration and so on. All you need is to give it constant power, and connect the audio out to an amplifier and speaker.
Electric cars is a great effort to improve the environment, but if people start getting in accidents because they literally didn't hear it coming, then there will be a demand for such measures. Before these accidents start to occur, we might as well think ahead.
I do agree totally that 1) an EV should not pretend to sound like an ICE and 2) there shouldn't be a dumb speaker/beeper which just starts out at max volume, any time the vehicle is in motion.
An automatic, well balanced and intelligent solution will be best for all parties (except maybe undertakes and lawyers)