Tesla’s HEPA Filter
It has been a pretty wild couple of weeks if you happen to be living on the East Coast of North America. Over 34 Wildfires were active in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario at the beginning of June, and flooded southwards, causing some pretty intense conditions - especially if you already have weak lungs.
These conditions sparked several discussions on air quality and the need to combat climate change - but Tesla owners also started discussing the use of the HEPA filters that come standard with some of the company’s vehicles - notably the Models Y, S, and X.
These models have an activatable “Bioweapon Defence Mode” that uses a large HEPA filter to clean the air of up to 99.9% of fine particulate matter and other pollutants - something that was desperately needed by folks living under that cloud of forest fire smoke.
And it’s not the first time Tesla’s HEPA filters rescued some customers.
Back in 2019, California was swept by a similar rash of wildfires, and users there reported that the Bioweapon Defence Mode saved them a good deal of respiratory distress during that time.
But now that these fire seasons are becoming more common, some Tesla users are wondering when the Model 3 will be seeing this feature as well.
In a post on Twitter, Tesla owner @natewiki laments the lack of a HEPA filter on his Model 3 as a trio of… coordinated gas-vehicle drivers allegedly decided to blow a bunch of exhaust his way. This incident wasn’t as dangerous as smoke, but it does highlight a lack of protection in the Model 3.
But maybe not for much longer.
Originally, the Bioweapon Defence Mode was only available on the Model X, and then later added to the other two models. We have been seeing a constant string of improvements to the Model 3 in that time - including a much larger design upgrade called “Project Highland” that is still yet to be fully revealed. So it’s possible Tesla could have already solved this issue.
But more than that, strong filters in personal vehicles may become a necessity soon. As in a lot of areas, Tesla is ahead of the automotive industry on this one - but not for their entire fleet. Let’s hope those Model 3s get a HEPA filter soon.