Eccentric billionaire, space privateer and auto manufacturer Elon Musk has felt it necessary that his new car, the Tesla Model X, come with protection against a bioweapons attack. And so it does.
The system is specifically called ‘Bioweapon Defense Mode,’ and it runs the car’s air filters at the highest setting, as TechCrunch reports.
These air filters are about an order of magnitude larger than standard.
Our own Andrew Collins was at the Model X’s launch and elaborated further.
Even when you’re not in an accident, the car protects its occupants from invisible harm with a true HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Arrestance) cabin air filter, the only one in any car, according to Musk.
“If there’s ever a bioweapon attack,” Musk said “the safest place is your car.” At this point I figured he was kidding, until he added “there’s actually a ‘bioweapon defense mode’ right there in the HVAC. We figure you shouldn’t have to think if you’re in an emergency.”
Most of Tesla’s positioning about their air cleaners were about air quality, and that’s reasonably standard.
But this weapons defense mode is a new level of modern fear. Nothing here hurts anyone, though it does verge on the absurd.
If you wanted a physical manifestation of the Silicon Valley elites’ reclusive, paranoid, eco-minded tendencies, here you go.
I’m not going to go out and say that this is more proof that Musk is a malevolent mad genius, but it’s a point in that direction.
Photo Credits: Tesla
Contact the author at raphael@jalopnik.com.