Tesla Bioweapon Defense Mode Gets Tested, Exterminates Pollution Even Outside The Car

Tesla carries out tests to showcase what the HEPA filters found in the Model X and the later version of the Model S can do, indicating that they are so effective they can actually clean not only the interior side of things but also the air surrounding the vehicle.

Now Bioweapon Defense Mode sounds a bit gimmicky at first, and what initially comes to mind is some sort of technology out of a sci-fi or James Bond movie. It's more or less along those lines, but the big difference is that this is the real thing.

"Bioweapon Defense Mode is not a marketing statement, it is real. You can literally survive a military grade bio attack by sitting in your car," Tesla says.

As for how the HEPA filtration system works, it refines the air coming inside the car, getting rid of bacteria, pollen and pollution. What's more, it cleans out every bit of such contaminants in the interior to guarantee air quality.

Going over the in-house evaluation, it involved putting a Model X inside a bubble with dangerous levels of pollution — the "good" air quality index limit of PM2.5 of the EPA is 12 µg/m³, while the air inside the enclosure is 1,000 µg/m³.

Once the Bioweapon Defense Mode was turned on, the air inside the Model X became so clean that the instruments used to measure the pollution couldn't detect any trace of the contaminants left.

For the record, the HEPA filters were also put in real-world conditions. Needless to say, they aced the tests here too.

According to the electric car maker, the system used in the space industry, hospitals and whatnot inspired the technology. Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk gives due credit to the person who essentially gave the idea to begin with: Google co-founder Larry Page.

Not everyone needs borderline sterile air all the time, but at any rate, this Bioweapon Defense Mode trial shows just how far the engineering workmanship over at Tesla can go moving forward.