Every year we hear horror stories about dogs dying after being left in hot cars. No matter how much we’re reminded, people still underestimate how quickly the cabin can heat up even though they’ll “only be a minute.”
It gets dangerous really, really fast.
Even on cooler days, a car can gain an average of 40°F within the first hour.
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Besides the chance of losing your pet, leaving them can also result in broken car windows if someone frees your sweating dog.
In some places, you can get fined or even face criminal charges for risking your pets’ life that way.
So yeah, don’t leave your pets — or kids! — in the car, people.
Don’t leave them there in the winter, either. You may think that their fur will protect them, but not as much as you’d hope.
There isn’t really a good way to keep your car at a comfortable temperature.
Opening the windows can help on a hot day, but only for a while, and it’s bad for the environment to leave your car running idle just so Fido can enjoy some air conditioning.
But Tesla is once again proving the benefits of an electric engine.
They already had a feature called Cabin Overheat Protection.
When on, the vehicle won’t allow the cabin to rise to a temperature hotter than 104°F.
This is great for parents worried about forgetting kids in the car and also makes getting in the car more comfortable after a long day parked in the sun.
104°F is still too hot to sit in comfortably for very long, even if you don’t have a fur coat.
So Tesla just released a software update that includes “Dog Mode”, a feature specifically meant to keep Fido safe and comfortable.
It also displays a large alert on the console so that good samaritans won’t smash your window.
Of course, you may still need to check your local laws before using the feature.
Some municipalities may have blanket bans on leaving pets in the car, regardless of whatever fancy tech your vehicle has.
The feature does use up some battery, but probably a lot less than it would leaving the engine on.
Dog Mode isn’t the only new feature in the update, either.
“Sentry Mode” is a new upgrade to a basic alarm system, using cameras and sensors all around the car.
If it detects something minimal, such as a person bumping or leaning on the car, it will switch to an alert state and record video of what’s happening for later.
That could be really great for figuring out who it was that keyed your door.
Of course, we can’t all afford a Tesla and fully electric cars aren’t as ubiquitous as we might hope, but it’s great to see a company coming up with modern features like this.
Hopefully, other manufacturers will take some inspiration.
h/t: The Verge
