Tesla’s Cabin Overheat Protection: What It Does, Options, Battery Drain

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Your Tesla is packed with features designed to improve your comfort and safety, and Cabin Overheat Protection (COP) is a prime example. While all the materials and equipment in your car are built to withstand the summer heat, this feature prevents the interior from reaching excessively high temperatures when parked. 

But what does it do, how does it work, and when should you really use it? Let’s dive in.

What is Cabin Overheat Protection?

Cabin Overheat Protection is a climate control feature that activates automatically after you’ve left your vehicle. Its primary goal is to keep the interior cabin temperature from soaring on hot days, and helping to keep the surfaces humans touch most often - like the seats, steering wheel, and screen- at a more manageable temperature.

You can also use Cabin Overheat Protection to protect temperature-sensitive items from excessive temperatures; however, its primary goal is to prevent the cabin from becoming excessively hot.

For moderate durations, Cabin Overheat Protection can actually reduce the amount of energy spent cooling your vehicle, as it’s more efficient to maintain a temperature rather than letting cooling it down from 130ºF. However, it most cases, Cabin Overheat Protection will use additional energy.

It is important to note what Cabin Overheat Protection is not. It isn’t designed to protect people or pets. For that, you’ll want to use Tesla’s dedicated “Dog Mode” or “Keep Climate On” features, which offer more robust control over the internal temperature. You can read a comparison of the major climate features here.

Enable Cabin Overheat Protection

Tesla offers several options for cabin overheat protection, allowing you to choose when and how it operates. You can enable it in your vehicle or through the Tesla app:

In the Vehicle: Navigate to Controls > Safety > Cabin Overheat Protection.

Via the Tesla App: Go to the Climate, swipe up, and toggle Cabin Overheat Protection.

Cabin Overheat Protection Settings

When enabling COP, you can pick from three settings:

Off: The system is completely disabled and will not activate when the vehicle is parked. This is the default option.

No A/C: If the interior temperature exceeds your set threshold (see below), your vehicle will only use the HVAC fan to circulate outside air through the cabin. This helps cool the vehicle since outside air is often cooler than the inside, which can easily reach 130ºF or higher. This is our recommended setting, as it helps prevent the cabin from getting too hot in most situations and uses minimal energy.

On: If the interior temperature exceeds your set threshold, the system will use both the fan and the air conditioning to actively cool the cabin down to and maintain it below that threshold. This is the most effective cooling option, but it also uses a significant amount of energy.

You can also set a Temperature Threshold for activating Cabin Overheat Protection. Tesla provides three options: 90°F (30°C), 95°F (35°C), or 100°F (40°C). Cabin Overheat Protection will attempt to maintain your vehicle at the threshold while it is active.

Battery Drain

The main reason you might choose to leave Cabin Overheat Protection off is its energy impact, which will not only increase your costs but also reduce your vehicle’s range. Ultimately, this feature keeps your vehicle’s HVAC system—or at least its fans—running to help cool the cabin.

While the No A/C mode consumes minimal energy, the On mode (which uses air conditioning) will noticeably drain the battery, particularly on hot days when the system works harder to maintain the set temperature.

The amount of energy COP uses will vary greatly based on your selected activation temperature, the exterior temperature, and whether your vehicle is parked in the sun. However, in general, the energy impact will be minimal if COP is set to No A/C, and significant if it’s set to On.

As a reminder, Cabin Overheat Protection will automatically shut off after 12 hours of operation or if the vehicle’s state of charge falls below 20%. COP and several other Tesla features will increase the cost of using your vehicle. We recently reviewed all Tesla features that continue to use power while your vehicle is parked.

Is Cabin Overheat Protection Necessary?

This is a common question, and the answer is no, Cabin Overheat Protection is not essential. Tesla vehicles, including their interior components, are designed and tested to withstand the typical automotive temperature cycles, including both hot and cold. While keeping the cabin cooler could potentially provide some marginal benefit in preventing the leather or other surfaces from degrading, the primary purpose is for the comfort of the occupants when they return.

What About Extreme Cold?

We’ve talked about heat, but what about extreme cold? Cabin Overheat Protection, as the name implies, deals with heat and will not prevent your vehicle from getting too cold. For cold weather, your Tesla has different mechanisms.

Your vehicle will automatically use energy to keep its high-voltage battery within a safe temperature range in extreme cold, whether or not you’re in the car. This helps protect the battery’s health and ensures you’ll have a minimal level of performance even if you enter the vehicle without preconditioning.

For optimal comfort in cold weather, preconditioning your vehicle will warm up the cabin and battery for improved performance.

Cabin Overheat Protection is a valuable feature that improves the comfort of your Tesla, particularly during hot weather. However, it’s not designed to improve the lifespan of your vehicle's interior, and it should not be used for people or pets (use Keep Climate or Dog Mode for those situations).

If you're parked in extreme heat and have sensitive items in the car, this could be an ideal use case. Use Keep Climate if you need to keep the items below 80°F, or Cabin Overheat Protection if you’re just looking to protect them from excessive temperatures.

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Tesla FSD in Europe: June Update

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The road to bringing FSD to Europe has been a long and complex one and filled with regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles. Elon Musk, as well as other members of Tesla’s AI team, have previously voiced their grievances with the regulatory approval process on X.

However, it appears that there is finally some progress in getting things moving with recent changes to upcoming autonomy regulations, but the process still seems slow.

Waiting on the Dutch

Elon commented on X recently, stating that Tesla is waiting for approval from Dutch authorities and then the EU to start rolling out FSD in Europe. Tesla is focusing on acquiring approvals from the Dutch transportation authority, which will provide them with the platform they need to gain broader acceptance in Europe. Outside of the Netherlands, Tesla is also conducting testing in Norway, which provides a couple of avenues for them to obtain national-level approval.

The frustration has been ongoing, with multiple committee meetings bringing up autonomy regulation but always pulling back at the last second before approving anything. The last meeting on Regulation 157, which governs Automated Lane Keeping Systems, concluded with authorities from the UK and Spain requesting additional time to analyze the data before reaching a conclusion.

Tesla, as well as Elon, have motioned several times for owners to reach out to their elected representatives to move the process forward, as it seems that Tesla’s own efforts are being stymied. 

This can seem odd, especially since Tesla has previously demoed FSD working exceptionally smoothly on European roads - and just did it again in Rome when they shared the video below on X.

FSD Supervised testing in Rome, Italy

Pending regulatory approval pic.twitter.com/TXh3uQIfrx

— Tesla Europe & Middle East (@teslaeurope) June 12, 2025

DCAS Phase 3

While the approval process has been slow, Kees Roelandschap pointed out that there may be a different regulatory step that could allow FSD to gain a foothold in Europe.

According to Kees, the European Commission is now taking a new approach to approving ADAS systems under the new DCAS Phase 3 regulations. The Commission is now seeking data from systems currently operational in the United States that can perform System-Initiated Maneuvers and don’t require hands-on intervention for every request.

This is key because those are two of the core functionalities that make FSD so usable, and it also means that there may not be a need to wait years for proper regulations to be written from scratch. Now, the Commission will be looking at real-world data based on existing, deployed technology, which could speed up the process immensely.

What This Means

This new, data-driven regulatory approach could be the path for Tesla to reach its previous target of September for European FSD. While the cogs of bureaucracy are ever slow, sometimes all it takes is a little data to have them turn a bit faster in this case.

Alongside specific countries granting approval for limited field testing with employees, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for FSD in Europe, and hopes are that a release will occur by the end of 2025. With Europe now looking to North America for how FSD is performing, Tesla’s Robotaxi results could also play a role.

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Tesla Launches 'TeslaVision' Contest With Big Prizes — See Last Year’s Winner [VIDEO]

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Tesla’s marketing has always been relatively unconventional, relying on word-of-mouth rather than traditional advertising. The passion of the owner’s community is always massive, but it is especially high now with the launch of the Robotaxi network just around the corner.

Tesla is now tapping into that spring of fan creativity and announced the TeslaVision video contest, with some seriously impressive prizes up for grabs.

Announcing the TeslaVision fan video showcase

Tesla owners & supporters have always been able to see our products & mission for what they truly are.

Your word of mouth has made Tesla what it is today.

The OGs will remember that in 2017, we held our first video contest. 8 years… pic.twitter.com/6pPpkqmqOH

— Tesla (@Tesla) June 10, 2025

The Contest

The core of the contest is simple. Create a video that shows how your Tesla gives you more in life. Tesla is looking for submissions that highlight themes of freedom, safety, fun, and convenience.

Prizes

The prizes definitely make this contest worth entering if you’re good with a camera and have some basic video editing abilities.

For North America, the prizes include a brand new Model Y AWD Long Range, alongside an all-expenses-paid trip to Austin for a tour of Giga Texas. The grand prize winner will also be able to custom order their Model Y, allowing them to select their preferred wheels and color.

The two runners-up won’t get a Model Y, but they’ll also enjoy an all-expenses-paid trip to Giga Texas for a tour of the factory.

The travel and tour include lodging in Austin for 2 nights, as well as economy-class round-trip tickets from anywhere in North America. Tesla will also provide a vehicle for use during the trip.

Hopefully, these winners will also have the opportunity to experience the Robotaxi network while they’re in Austin, as it’s expected to be opened to the public later this month.

Project Loveday

For long-time followers of Tesla, this contest may feel familiar. The contest is a direct throwback to the 2017 Project Loveday contest, which was inspired by a letter to Tesla from a 10-year-old aspiring marketer. That contest was won by MKBHD, with his submission below:

How to Enter

If you’re ready to start filming, here are the key pieces of information you’ll need to know:

• Video must be 90 seconds or less

• Video must be uploaded to YouTube with a public URL

• Make a post on X and Instagram tagging “@Tesla” and include the words “TeslaVision contest” in the post.

• Provide links to both social media posts in your submission to Tesla’s form

• Provide your personal details in the form

• You have until July 17th, 2025, or until Tesla receives 10,000 entries, whichever comes first.

You can find the official submission form and all region-specific details on Tesla's website.

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