Tesla Parental Controls – What They Do and How to Enable Them

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With software update 2024.26, Tesla introduced Parental Controls, a long-awaited feature designed to give parents greater peace of mind while their teens are on the road.

This addition reinforces Tesla’s reputation for safety, offering more controls and monitoring for young drivers. Let’s explore what Parental Controls can do and how to enable them.

What They Do

Tesla’s Parental Controls lets you set restrictions in the vehicle, creating a safer driving experience—especially for young drivers. These controls not only limit certain vehicle functions but also keep parents or owners informed about the vehicle’s location and usage in real-time.

There are four main features of Parental Controls, including reduced speed and acceleration, enforced safety features, and late-night driving alerts. Each of these main features can be turned on or off individually.

Reduced Speed & Acceleration

The standout feature of Tesla’s Parental Controls is the ability to set a maximum speed limit and restrict acceleration to Chill Mode.

By limiting acceleration to Chill Mode, the vehicle reduces horsepower and torque output, making it an excellent safeguard for young or inexperienced drivers.

For Maximum Speed, you can set a limit starting from 50 mph (80 km/h) and up. However, keep in mind that certain driving situations, such as merging onto a highway or passing another vehicle, may require a temporary higher speed.

Additionally, performance-related features are restricted for Parental Control profiles:

• Track Mode is disabled on Performance models or any vehicle that supports it—so no late-night donuts in the parking lot.

• Launch Mode, which is only available on Plaid models is also greyed out, preventing high-powered acceleration.

Enforce Safety Features

Parental controls are enabled in this vehicle, enforcing certain safety features

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Tesla’s Parental Controls also enforce key safety features, ensuring they remain active while Parental Controls are enabled. These features include:

• Speed Limit Warning

  • The speed limit warning warns the driver when they go 5 mph (8 kp/h) above the speed limit and can not be adjusted. Audio and visual alerts are enforced.

• Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB)

• Forward Collision Warning (FCW)

• Obstacle-Aware Acceleration

• Automatic Blind Spot Camera

• Blind Spot Collision Warning Chime

• Automatic 911 Call

• Allow Mobile Access

• Lane Departure Avoidance (Set to Assist)

• Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance

• Park Assist Chimes

While most of these safety features should always be enabled for any driver, Tesla allows them to be turned off manually. However, Parental Controls lock these settings, preventing accidental or intentional deactivation.

Night Driving Alert

Parental Controls also allow you to set a curfew, allowing you to be notified if a restricted driver uses the vehicle late at night. Curfew hours are set between 11 pm and 4 am and can not be changed. You’ll receive a Tesla app notification anytime the car is driven between these hours.

How to Enable Parental Controls

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Activating Parental Controls is simple and can be done either in-vehicle or through the Tesla app, making it easy to manage restrictions anytime, anywhere.

• In-Vehicle: Go to Vehicle Settings > Safety, then scroll down to Parental Controls and choose Enable. You can also enable parental controls by tapping on the profile icon at the top of the screen and choosing Parental Controls.

• In the Tesla App: Navigate to Security & Safety to access Parental Controls.

After enabling Parental Controls, you’ll be asked to enter a four-digit code that will be required when turning it off.

How to Turn Off Parental Controls

Parental Controls apply to the entire vehicle and affect all driver profiles. If you’re switching between a driver who needs parental controls and one who doesn't, then parental controls must be enabled or disabled after each driver uses the vehicle.

To turn off parental controls, tap the Profiles icon in the status bar, then tap parental controls and enter your PIN.

How to Tell If Parental Controls Are Enabled

There are a few ways to tell if parental controls are enabled in the vehicle. The easiest way is to tap the Profile icon in the status bar. If parental controls are enabled, you’ll see “Parental Controls Enabled” at the top of the list of profiles.

Which Models Are Supported

Like most Tesla software updates, new features apply to most features. This means that parental controls are available on most Teslas, including all Model 3s, all Model Ys, Cybertrucks, and 2021+ Model S and Model X vehicles.

Future Updates

Since introducing Parental Controls in 2024, Tesla has already added additional functionality, such as requiring Park Assist Chimes, Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance, Automatic 911 Calls, and other features.

There will likely be further improvements to parental controls that will introduce additional capabilities in the future. Such features could include letting guardians customize the curfew hours and locking parental controls to specific profiles.

Parental Controls are an immensely valuable feature if you have a young driver in the house. Similar to Valet Mode, they restrict access to several features, but while Valet Mode focuses on privacy, Parental Controls focuses on safety.

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New Tesla Model Y Adds 4D Radar; Calls 911 If Child Left Behind, Increases Safety

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Tesla’s refreshed Model Y is currently being manufactured as Tesla prepares for its first deliveries next month. While we’ve already seen quite a few cool new features, there’s more that has yet to be revealed. A recent video interview with Tesla’s engineering team hosted by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley reveals that the vehicle includes a new 4D cabin radar.

4D Radar

While Tesla has included an in-cabin radar since 2022, this appears to be a new, more capable radar. The current cabin radar is used to verify seat occupancy, but Tesla plans to add more functionality to this new system.

This updated radar will be used to provide a lot more detail than the current radar or cabin camera can provide today. The radar is located in the same location as the current version, directly above the rearview mirror.

Classify Passenger Size

This new radar has several new safety-focused features, and they’re all quite exceptional. First off, the radar will detect and classify passenger size to determine which airbags to deploy dynamically. That means that if a shorter individual is sitting up front, the dashboard airbag may not activate - but the curtain airbag will.

That will reduce injuries in impacts from airbag activation while also reducing repair costs by not activating unnecessary airbags. By having a better idea of the passenger’s size, height, and weight, the vehicle can also better determine when to activate the airbag.

Children Left in Car

But that’s not all - because of that classification system, the radar can differentiate an adult passenger from a baby or child sitting in the second row - and automatically make the necessary dynamic safety adjustments.

The cabin radar will also detect heart rate and breathing, and Tesla will automatically send a reminder through the Tesla app if it detects a child is left unattended in the vehicle. If this occurs, the vehicle will perform a variety of functions, the first being to turn on the HVAC system and send you a reminder. And if that’s not enough - in the case of an emergency, your vehicle will automatically call emergency services for you and report its location.

It’s important to note that while vehicles outside North America have eCall capabilities, in North America, they cannot call 911 unless a phone is connected to the vehicle via Bluetooth. We hope that Tesla can contact 911 via an alternative method or add eCall capabilities to these vehicles.

In late 2023, Tesla added the ability for the vehicle to call 911 over Bluetooth when the vehicle is involved in a crash.

The cabin radar in the 2024 Model Y

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Coming Soon

While the refreshed Model Y will be shipping in March, this new radar and its associated features won’t be available immediately. Tesla intends to activate these new safety features in Q3 2025 - so sometime in late summer or early fall. We’ll dive into this new feature once it’s available later this year.

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Tesla Confirms Update Issue for FSD V13.2.2; Fix Coming [Fix Going Out]

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A member of Tesla’s AI development team, Kalena Brown, took to X to mention that an update is on its way for AI 4 vehicles on older FSD V13.2 builds.

It seems that Tesla has caught an issue that has been preventing vehicles from safely updating from FSD V13.2.2 to newer builds such as FSD V13.2.4 or V13.2.6.

The Bug

Tesla usually catches these issues early in testing, but sometimes, they make their way out into the wild, necessitating a stop to a rollout. In this case, the rollout was likely halted to prevent this issue from spreading to other vehicles.

There have been a lot of comments on social media that users haven’t seen an update since late December or early January. While that’s not completely abnormal, this update, version 2024.45.25.5 includes an issue that prevents it from being updated.

Please be patient! Found an issue specific to that update path, but fix is coming soon

Many folks on older builds also waiting and we're working hard to get everyone covered 🙂

— Kalena Brown (@KalenaKBrown) February 7, 2025

The Fix

Brown says that Tesla is aware of the issue and is working hard to get a build with the fix released soon. It may be a couple of weeks before it’s ready, but you can expect Tesla to roll this one out slowly to make sure the issue is addressed.

The issue appears to be specific to FSD V13.2.2, so anyone on another update should not be affected. Keep an eye out on our feeds - and we’ll let you know once the update is released.

Update: Software update 2024.45.32.15, which includes FSD v13.2.7, has the fix needed, and users on FSD v13.2.2 are now being updated to this latest build.

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