If you’ve ever walked away from your car without remembering to close all the windows, you’re in trouble if it starts to rain. Now, a feature for Tesla vehicles will automatically close any open windows if it detects that it’s raining and save your interior from being damp.
According to Drive Tesla Canada, the request was made by multiple people on Twitter, but the only one that Elon Musk himself replied to was Brandonee916, a beta tester for Full Self-Driving.
@elonmusk May we get the ability to have the windows to close automatically if the Tesla detects rain and the windows are open while parked? 🙏🏻
— Brandon 🌎☮️🚗⚡️🔋 (@brandonee916) May 30, 2022
Elon replied “sure”, although it’s unclear when the feature will actually be rolled out for the masses.
For those that can’t wait for an official release from the company, there is a workaround to be able to turn the feature on manually by going into the settings of the vehicle.
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Under the ‘Locks’ menu, simply select ‘Walk-Away Door Lock’, which will automatically lock the doors of the vehicle as you walk away from it. Then, simply switch on ‘Close Windows on Lock’, and voila, your vehicle will remember to close the windows, even when you don’t. If you’d rather just be notified if you left your windows open so you can run back to your car there’s that option too.
The system works whether it’s raining or not. If the Tesla is parked inside at home and the owner would rather have the windows open for easy access, they can choose “Exclude Home”.
While this isn’t exactly the same as the vehicle detecting the rain and closing the windows, it will work as a stop-gap until the full version arrives.
One commentator pointed out one of the drawbacks of the system, which would close the windows whether or not there was a child or animal in the car, potentially leading to heat exhaustion. Perhaps Tesla will build in a feature that can detect if there are still occupants in the vehicle before closing the windows and offering a confirmation menu on the infotainment screen, or turning on the air conditioning.