Tesla’s air filtration system with “Bioweapon Defense Mode” is proving useful for the owners affected by the current wildfires in California.

Watch an owner using the system while going through a hellish-looking road with scary air quality.

With the Model X, Tesla put a lot of effort into developing a more powerful air filtering system in order to not only contribute to the reduction of local air pollution with electric vehicles, but also to reduce the direct impact of air pollution on the occupants of its vehicles.

Musk credited Google cofounder Larry Page for turning him onto the idea, and with the Model X in 2015, Tesla introduced a brand-new HEPA air filter system.

The automaker claims that it is about 10 times larger than a normal car filter.

When working at full capacity, which Tesla calls “Bioweapon Defense Mode,” the company says that it is “100 times more effective than premium automotive filters” as it removes “at least 99.97% of fine particulate matter and gaseous pollutants, as well as bacteria, viruses, pollen, and mold spores.”

They eventually also added the feature to Model S, and it is proving useful beyond just protecting drivers from general air pollution.

During the wildfire season in California last year, CEO Elon Musk suggested that the “Bioweapon Defense Mode” could be useful to escape some areas where the air quality is extremely bad due to the fires.

Now with the 2019 wildfire season in full effect, some owners are finding the feature truly useful.

A Tesla owner posted this scary video of driving through an area where the fires are raging and creating some extremely bad air conditions:

When asked if he activated the “Bioweapon Defense Mode” (BWD), the owner responded:

It was activated, but as soon as I saw the fire I was like LET’S TURN ON BWD… it felt pretty epic hitting that button knowing that it would be filtering the air from the fire.

Several other owners are reporting the air filtration system to be useful to combat the air quality created by the fires in California right now.

The fires have already burned several thousand acres in California, where there’s a high concentration of Tesla vehicles.

Authorities have issued warnings of dangerous air quality. Stay safe.

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