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.
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest Tesla news, upcoming features and software updates.
Winter is here, and temperatures are dropping, so one of the most common Tesla questions is about to resurface.
If you’ve landed here after frantically searching about “smoke” coming from your Tesla while Supercharging, take a deep breath—it’s completely normal.
Tesla Smoking While Charging
If you’re Supercharging in freezing weather—even with preconditioning—you might notice steam rising from your Tesla. But rest assured, your car isn’t smoking.
Your Tesla’s heat pump is hard at work warming both the cabin and battery to keep you comfortable and ensure optimal charging temperatures. Over time, condensation and ice build-up in the heat exchanger coils.
Why Does It Happen?
When you reach a Supercharger with your vehicle, the heat pump is still running hot, but without the cold air from driving to keep the heat exchanger coils cool, the ice and condensation quickly start to evaporate—creating what looks like smoke.
Since this typically happens near the front of the vehicle, where a car would traditionally have an engine, new vehicle owners can be startled by the discovery. However, rest assured that it’s just water vapor and it’s completely normal in cold weather.
In fact, this behavior can be experienced in any EV with a heat pump in cold climates. So, if you saw steam coming out of your vehicle and panicked, don’t worry—you’re not alone.
Now that you know what’s happening, go ahead and Supercharge with confidence.
Tesla made a lot of improvements in the 2024 Holiday Update, including more than 15 undocumented improvements that were included in the release. One of these was a stealthy performance improvement to the YouTube app.
Several people have mentioned they’ve seen improved performance on YouTube since this year’s Holiday Update - and there’s an interesting reason why.
YouTube Improvements
The improved YouTube performance in Tesla vehicles comes from an unexpected source—Tesla actually rolled back support for YouTube’s newer AV1 video encoding. Instead, vehicles now default to the older VP9 encoding standard.
While AV1 is highly efficient in terms of bandwidth, it requires considerably more processing power to decode and display videos. VP9, on the other hand, is less computationally demanding but uses more bandwidth to achieve the same video quality. This trade-off means smoother playback and better overall performance, even if it comes at the cost of slightly higher data usage.
Intel Inside
The VP9 video codec that the YouTube app is now using is much easier to decode, making it less taxing on the vehicle’s processor. This change is particularly beneficial for Tesla vehicles with Intel processors, which previously struggled to stream video at just 720p. When using AV1, these vehicles often experienced stuttering, sometimes forcing the YouTube app to automatically downgrade playback to 480p.
With this update, Intel-based Teslas should now be able to stream at 1080p smoothly. Streaming at 1440p is also possible, although occasional stutters still occur as the system keeps up with the decoding process.
Intel-based vehicles are the big winners with this change, but this appears to affect AMD Ryzen-based infotainment units as well, providing even smoother playback.
Chromium Web App
Tesla’s Theater apps aren’t native applications; instead, they run as chromeless web apps, leveraging the open-source browser built into Teslas known as Chromium (the open-source version of Chrome). Although this works quite well, there is a severe limitation - Chromium hardware acceleration isn’t supported on Linux, the operating system Tesla uses for their OS.
As a result, Tesla vehicles rely on software decoding instead of hardware decoding, which would otherwise handle video playback far more efficiently. A potential solution could be for Tesla to transition away from Chromium-based web apps in favor of a Mozilla Firefox-based browser, as Firefox does support hardware acceleration on Linux. This switch could also open the door to better streaming performance and the possibility of expanding Tesla’s in-car entertainment options.
However, Tesla’s choice of Chromium likely stems from Digital Rights Management (DRM) requirements for streaming services like Disney+ and Netflix, which rely on DRM-enabled playback. Firefox on Linux has had inconsistent support for DRM due to codec availability and variations in operating system versions.
We’re hopeful that Tesla will either adopt Firefox or develop a fully native application to improve video streaming, rather than continuing with the current web-based Tesla Theater. This shift could also pave the way for additional in-car applications built on Tesla’s native Linux environment—perhaps even reviving the long-rumored Tesla App Store.
Regardless, this update is a welcome improvement, particularly for YouTube, which remains one of the most widely used Theater Mode apps due to its accessibility, free content, and mix of short and long-form videos. It remains to be seen whether similar improvements are made for Netflix, Disney+, or other streaming platforms.
If you’ve noticed improved performance in Theater Mode, now you know why.