It’s possible that the change that was made has to do with the sound that is generated, rather than the conditions under which the sound is emitted. It would seem logical that when the ICE is running the Clarity is making sounds similar to other ICE vehicles, which are not required to have fairy bells. I’m not going to spend a fraction of a second reading the rules.
Just wanted to note that the $500 college grad discount seems to be universal. There are also individual dealers who can offer a $500 military (and sometimes police/first responder type) discount. So if the latter applies, you might look around. There's also the employee/family discount of course, but that probably doesn't apply to many.
Touche, I'll amend my statement to be limited to the 50 US states. https://www.hondafinancialservices.com/forwhatitsworth
In the Costco site it shows for 2019 not 2020 model. Not sure if they will update it, but probably they want to clear the 2019 first.