For dog owners, there are few things worse than when people leave their pets in the car, especially when the temps are high. When cracking a window is not enough, Tesla is keeping dogs cool around the country with its first ever Dog Mode.
Tesla Dog Mode is a specially designed feature that keeps the car cool whenever pets are left behind. It also shows the current temperature inside the car on a large touchscreen, just in case concerned citizens walk by. All Tesla owners have to do is touch the fan icon when the vehicle is in park, select DOG under Keep Climate On, and the software does the rest.
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According to Jalopnik, Dog Mode remains on until the car battery gets under 20 percent capacity. At that point, the car sends you a notification via the Tesla app. For people who already own a Tesla, the new features are included in the latest software upgrade, which can be done wirelessly.
Introducing Dog Mode: set a cabin temperature to keep your dog comfortable while letting passersby know they don’t need to worry pic.twitter.com/xFU6MGZT53
— Tesla (@Tesla) February 14, 2019
Although Tesla Dog Mode is a great way to keep pets cool, the company cautioned owners to check local laws before leaving their dogs behind. In some states, it is illegal to leave pets inside vehicles unattended, and those laws do not change just because you own a Tesla that has this safety feature.
Elon Musk looked into adding the Dog Mode feature after an owner sent him a request on Twitter. It only took Musk and his team a few months of engineering to put the plan into motion.
“Can you put a dog mode on the Tesla Model 3. Where the music plays and the AC is on, with a display on the screen saying, ‘I’m fine my owner will be right back’?” a Twitter user asked, to which Musk simply answered, “Yes.”
Tesla Dog Mode is one of many features that the company included in its latest software update. Apart from the pet mode, owners can download Sentry Mode and a dashcam upgrade. While not as novel as the Tesla Dog Mode, the dashcam allows owners to record data from all cameras (not just the front-facing one) while the Sentry feature detects hazards when the car is in park.
Via Jalopnik
Image via Leo Young and Tesla
