One of Tesla’s latest features included in the 2021.24.4 release is Car Wash Mode. The feature was initially available for all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and it has more recently been added to the redesigned Model S and Model X. Unfortunately, it’s not available for the older Model S or Model X models.
For the most part, this feature doesn't add anything new. You could already turn off most of these car wash related features manually, but using Car Wash Mode makes it much easier. It also provides a useful status of each feature that is relevant during a car wash so that you can use it as a checklist.
Car Wash Mode can help prevent damage to cars for many owners when using automatic car washes. For example, it’ll lock your charge port door to prevent it from opening when a brush pushes against it. It also disables your wipers, preventing them from coming on and getting tangled or caught in a car wash’s felt strips.
After arriving at a car wash, you can enable Car Wash Mode by going to Car Controls > Service > Car Wash Mode. The car will immediately perform a variety of things for you to get your car ready.
Your vehicle will automatically close your windows and other things to prevent water from getting into the car. This includes the charge port, windows and if your car is equipped with an automatic trunk, it’ll close the trunk for you as well.
It does quite a bit more than just close your windows for you though. It’ll disable your wipers, lock the charge port door, turn off Sentry Mode, disable walk-away door locking and even disable the parking sensor chimes to prevent unwanted beeping during the car wash.
For automatic car washes that use conveyor belts, you will need to put your Tesla into neutral. Now, if you’ve never done that before, it’s not very obvious how to do it in a Tesla.
It requires you to have your foot on the brake pedal while pushing the gear stalk up or down and holding it for a second. Car Wash Mode now makes it very easy to get your car into Neutral. There’s an “Enable Free Roll” button that you can easily tap in Car Wash Mode. You'll need to be in drive and have your foot on the brake pedal for the button to be enabled. No need to mess with the gear stalk anymore.
One of the nicest features of Car Wash Mode is the great overview it gives you of your car and all of its features that are relevant during an automatic car wash.
It’ll display a list of each feature and give you a red or green status light to alert you of any issues. For example, if you left your trunk open, it would show a red light and display “Trunk: Open.”
It’s sort of a car wash checklist with a live status for each feature. It’ll even show you the status of the climate system, which you likely want to turn off or set to recirculating while in the car wash.
On the Car Wash Mode screen, you also have easy access to Screen Clean Mode and the ability to fold your mirrors if needed.
You can exit Car Wash Mode by tapping the exit button or simply by putting your car into Drive and going above 10 MPH.
Car Wash Mode is a nice addition that certainly doesn’t do anything you couldn’t do before, but it sure makes it easier and more enjoyable.
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Tesla software update 2024.44.3 has started rolling out to customers in larger waves recently and it brings several new features - including Actually Smart Summon to Europe and the Middle East, as well as improvements to Autopark. But that’s not all, it also adds a new Blind Spot Monitoring feature to the new Model 3, and potentially the Cybertruck, but that’s still to be determined.
We previously covered the Blind Spot Warning While Parked as part of our preview notes for update 2024.44, but now that it's going out to customers, it's time to see it in action.
If the vehicle’s door open button is pressed, and a vehicle or object is near or incoming, the vehicle’s Blind Spot Warning Light (2024 Model 3 and Cybertruck) will illuminate, an audible tone will ring and the door won’t open. A message will also be displayed on the center displaying, letting driver’s know why the door didn’t open.
Pressing the button a second time will allow you to override the warning and open the door normally, providing a way to get out in case you just parked close to a nearby vehicle or obstacle.
The object detection for this new feature includes cars, pedestrians, cyclists, and other objects - like things including traffic cones, bollards, strollers, and other large obstacles that FSD and vision-based Autopark detect during normal operation. Of note - this only works for the front two doors. Thanks to X user Max, who did some testing for us, It does not work for the rear passenger doors.
Optional Feature
The feature is optional - it’ll be enabled by default for safety, but if you need to enable or disable it, you can do so under Controls > Safety. For now, the feature is only available on the 2024 Model 3, but we expect it to roll out to the Cybertruck at least. However, there’s no reason why it can’t be added to other vehicles as well, minus the small red dot. We expect Tesla to eventually add this feature to all Tesla vehicles, but it’s currently not a part of update 2024.44.
Enhauto’s S3XY Buttons & Commander
If that’s not enough safety and vision for you, Enhauto, the makers of the popular S3XY Buttons and Commander recently put out a new software update for the 2024 Model 3, which makes some fantastic use of the ambient lighting.
With Enhauto’s solution, users are able to tie their ambient lights to Autopilot use, turn signals or even if a vehicle is their blind spot. Check out the video below for this awesome implementation, where the ambient lights turn red when another vehicle approaches.
Maybe Tesla will integrate something like this into a future update? We’ve been hoping for more customizability with their ambient lighting - it's an easy safety win and a demonstration of Tesla’s do-more-with-less attitude.
I look forward to @enhauto updates more than Tesla...
Ambient light effects....
I set default color to white. Blinks green on turn signals Turns blue on FSD activation Yellow if someone in blind spot Blinks red if turn signal on and blind spot activity detected.
The feature is now possible thanks to what Wes Morrill, Cybertruck’s lead engineering, points out is a huge rewrite of Tesla’s Trip Planner, which not only makes it much more accurate but will now allow users to choose their arrival charge percentage.
More Accurate Trip Planner
When you navigate to a destination, your Tesla will automatically calculate when, where, and how much you need to charge. While the process seems straightforward, Tesla deserves a lot of credit for creating a simple user experience because a lot goes into accurately determining this information.
Tesla has to calculate many moving pieces in order to accurately predict when and where you should stop. First, it needs to consider your driving efficiency and wind direction, terrain elevation, traffic, vehicle speed, and ambient temperature. It also needs to predict the best Superchargers to stop at, taking into account congestion and charger speed.
This morning, in response to Dan Burkland, Wes shared that Tesla had significantly rewritten the backend portion of Trip Planner. These improvements, made by several engineers, were designed to improve Trip Planner’s accuracy and open the door to future features.
It sounds like these changes are mostly server-side, so thanks to their OTA connection, more accurate predictions should be available to all vehicles—no vehicle update is required.
Arrival State of Charge
Along with Tesla’s improvements to Trip Planner, Wes also stated that these improvements allow for a popular feature request — the ability to select your desired charge level at arrival.
Up until now, Tesla’s Trip Planner tried to get you to your destination as quickly as possible, which usually meant arriving with a low state of charge.
While this was fine if you have a charger at your destination, it’s not great if you don’t, or it could be even worse if there are no chargers nearby.
Max de Zegher said on X that he has heard the requests for a selectable arrival state of charge. Wes later clarified this by saying that these improvements to Tesla’s Trip Planner now allow for additional features to be added, such as “desired arrival charge.”
Actually trip planner got a huge rewrite on the back end. I had a great conversation with one of the engineers working on this over a morning run a few weeks back, it's pretty neat. The rewrite also unlocks additional features, like desired arrival charge.
Given that Max de Zegher’s comments came last night and Wes Morrill commented this morning, this feature request likely won’t arrive with the upcoming Holiday Update. Tesla actually hinted at such a feature being added in their last app update, so it does seem like they’ve already planned for it.
Although ‘Arrival State of Charge’ was on our wishlist for the Holiday Update, it looks like it may arrive soon after the holidays.
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