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Tesla’s ‘Bioweapon Defense Mode’ is proving invaluable to owners affected by CA wildfires
When Elon Musk initially talked about the Model X’s “Bioweapon Defense Mode,” the company’s skeptics dismissed the feature as a simple gimmick. For owners of the company’s electric cars currently affected by the raging wildfires in CA, though, Bioweapon Defense Mode has become a welcome blessing, allowing them and their passengers to breathe clean air despite the worsening air quality outside.
California is currently facing its most destructive fires in the state’s history. As of Friday, the northern California city of Paradise has already been lost to the blaze. More than 6,700 structures have also burned to the ground in northern CA’s Camp Fire on Thursday and Friday. At least nine people have perished against the onslaught of expanding wildfire, and more than 250,000 people have been forced out of their homes as well. Despite authorities’ best efforts, Los Angeles fire officials noted on Friday afternoon that the blaze remains “zero contained.”
Reports from members of the Tesla community living in areas affected by the wildfires have noted that their vehicle’s Bioweapon Defense Mode has effectively maintained the air quality inside their cars. One such owner, Andrei Bulu, even posted a couple of pictures on social media showing the air readings from inside and outside his Model X as he was driving through the Bay Area, which is being affected by the fire in Paradise. As could be seen in the Model X owner’s post, the air quality readings improve dramatically when his electric SUV’s windows were up and Bioweapon Defense Mode was enabled.
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- [Credit: AndreiB/Twitter]
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- [Credit: AndreiB/Twitter]
Tesla’s Bioweapon Defense Mode allows occupants to breathe clean air. [Credit: AndreiB/Twitter]
Other Tesla owners driving in areas currently affected by the CA fires have shared similar experiences as well.
https://twitter.com/teslaamit519/status/1061056967609790464
Bioweapon Defense Mode incited a notable amount of lighthearted laughter from the audience when Elon Musk announced the feature for the Model X. During the vehicle’s unveiling, Musk candidly stated that the function is possible due to the Model X’s incredibly large HEPA filter, which is around ten times as large as those of a regular fossil fuel-powered car. Tesla noted that Bioweapon Defense Mode, which was later added on the Model S, is “100 times more effective than premium automotive filters, removing at least 99.97% of fine particulate matter and gaseous pollutants, as well as bacteria, viruses, pollen, and mold spores.”
In true Tesla fashion, the company’s skeptics were notably unimpressed with the feature, with many claiming that Bioweapon Defense Mode was but a marketing statement. Tesla later debunked these claims by holding a controlled test of a Model X inside a bubble contaminated with extreme levels of pollution (1,000 µg/m3 of PM2.5 vs. the EPA’s “good” air quality index limit of 12 µg/m3). Within two minutes, the Model X’s HEPA filtration system had scrubbed the air inside the all-electric SUV, and in the following minutes, even the air around the vehicle started getting cleaner.
If Tesla can help people in California wildfire, please let us know. Model S & X have hospital grade HEPA filters. Maybe helpful for transporting people.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 10, 2018
While Tesla’s electric car owners are able to breathe clean air despite the CA wildfires due to their vehicles’ Bioweapon Defense Mode, Elon Musk has stated that the company’s electric cars might prove helpful in moving people away from areas compromised by the blaze. An email Musk sent to employees reportedly even encouraged Tesla workers to provide assistance to the ongoing rescue efforts if they can, and not worry about compensation.
Over the years, Tesla has developed a reputation for helping out when it is able. Amidst the onslaught of this year’s hurricanes, Tesla provided temporary free unlimited Supercharging and a range upgrade to owners of Model S 40, 60, and 70 vehicles, enabling them to leave hurricane-affected areas. Elon Musk, for his part, also continues to provide some humanitarian aid as well. Just last month, it was revealed that Musk had been helping Flint, MI by giving the necessary funds to install water filtration systems to the district’s school buildings.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship Version 3 booster crumples in early testing
Photos of the incident’s aftermath suggest that Booster 18 will likely be retired.
SpaceX’s new Starship first-stage booster, Booster 18, suffered major damage early Friday during its first round of testing in Starbase, Texas, just one day after rolling out of the factory.
Based on videos of the incident, the lower section of the rocket booster appeared to crumple during a pressurization test. Photos of the incident’s aftermath suggest that Booster 18 will likely be retired.
Booster test failure
SpaceX began structural and propellant-system verification tests on Booster 18 Thursday night at the Massey’s Test Site, only a few miles from Starbase’s production facilities, as noted in an Ars Technica report. At 4:04 a.m. CT on Friday, a livestream from LabPadre Space captured the booster’s lower half experiencing a sudden destructive event around its liquid oxygen tank section. Post-incident images, shared on X by @StarshipGazer, showed notable deformation in the booster’s lower structure.
Neither SpaceX nor Elon Musk had commented as of Friday morning, but the vehicle’s condition suggests it is likely a complete loss. This is quite unfortunate, as Booster 18 is already part of the Starship V3 program, which includes design fixes and upgrades intended to improve reliability. While SpaceX maintains a rather rapid Starship production line in Starbase, Booster 18 was generally expected to validate the improvements implemented in the V3 program.
Tight deadlines
SpaceX needs Starship boosters and upper stages to begin demonstrating rapid reuse, tower catches, and early operational Starlink missions over the next two years. More critically, NASA’s Artemis program depends on an on-orbit refueling test in the second half of 2026, a requirement for the vehicle’s expected crewed lunar landing around 2028.
While SpaceX is known for diagnosing failures quickly and returning to testing at unmatched speed, losing the newest-generation booster at the very start of its campaign highlights the immense challenge involved in scaling Starship into a reliable, high-cadence launch system. SpaceX, however, is known for getting things done quickly, so it would not be a surprise if the company manages to figure out what happened to Booster 18 in the near future.
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Tesla FSD (Supervised) is about to go on “widespread” release
In a comment last October, Elon Musk stated that FSD V14.2 is “for widespread use.”
Tesla has begun rolling out Full Self-Driving (Supervised) V14.2, and with this, the wide release of the system could very well begin.
The update introduces a new high-resolution vision encoder, expanded emergency-vehicle handling, smarter routing, new parking options, and more refined driving behavior, among other improvements.
FSD V14.2 improvements
FSD (Supervised) V14.2’s release notes highlight a fully upgraded neural-network vision encoder capable of reading higher-resolution features, giving the system improved awareness of emergency vehicles, road obstacles, and even human gestures. Tesla also expanded its emergency-vehicle protocols, adding controlled pull-overs and yielding behavior for police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances, among others.
A deeper integration of navigation and routing into the vision network now allows the system to respond to blocked roads or detours in real time. The update also enhances decision-making in several complex scenarios, including unprotected turns, lane changes, vehicle cut-ins, and interactions with school buses. All in all, these improvements should help FSD (Supervised) V14.2 perform in a very smooth and comfortable manner.
Elon Musk’s predicted wide release
The significance of V14.2 grows when paired with Elon Musk’s comments from October. While responding to FSD tester AI DRIVR, who praised V14.1.2 for fixing “95% of indecisive lane changes and braking” and who noted that it was time for FSD to go on wide release, Musk stated that “14.2 for widespread use.”
FSD V14 has so far received a substantial amount of positive reviews from Tesla owners, many of whom have stated that the system now drives better than some human drivers as it is confident, cautious, and considerate at the same time. With V14.2 now rolling out, it remains to be seen if the update also makes it to the company’s wide FSD fleet, which is still populated by a large number of HW3 vehicles.
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Tesla FSD V14.2 starts rolling out to initial batch of vehicles
It would likely only be a matter of time before FSD V14.2 videos are posted and shared on social media.
Tesla has begun pushing Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.2 to its initial batch of vehicles. The update was initially observed by Tesla owners and veteran FSD users on social media platform X on Friday.
So far, reports of the update have been shared by Model Y owners in California whose vehicles are equipped with the company’s AI4 hardware, though it would not be surprising if more Tesla owners across the country receive the update as well.
Based on the release notes of the update, key improvements in FSD V14.2 include a revamped neural network for better detection of emergency vehicles, obstacles, and human gestures, as well as options to select arrival spots.
It would likely only be a matter of time before FSD V14.2 videos are posted and shared on social media.
Following are the release notes of FSD (Supervised) V14.2, as shared on X by longtime FSD tester Whole Mars Catalog.
Release Notes
2025.38.9.5
Currently Installed
FSD (Supervised) v14.2
Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.2 includes:
- Upgraded the neural network vision encoder, leveraging higher resolution features to further improve scenarios like handling emergency vehicles, obstacles on the road, and human gestures.
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, in a Parking Garage, or at the Curbside.
- Added handling to pull over or yield for emergency vehicles (e.g. police cars, fire trucks, ambulances.
- Added navigation and routing into the vision-based neural network for real-time handling of blocked roads and detours.
- Added additional Speed Profile to further customize driving style preference.
- Improved handling for static and dynamic gates.
- Improved offsetting for road debris (e.g. tires, tree branches, boxes).
- Improve handling of several scenarios including: unprotected turns, lane changes, vehicle cut-ins, and school busses.
- Improved FSD’s ability to manage system faults and improve scenarios like handling emergency vehicles, obstacles on the road, and human gestures.
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, in a Parking Garage, or at the Curbside.
- Added handling to pull over or yield for emergency vehicles (e.g. police cars, fire trucks, ambulances).
- Added navigation and routing into the vision-based neural network for real-time handling of blocked roads and detours.
- Added additional Speed Profile to further customize driving style preference.
- Improved handling for static and dynamic gates.
- Improved offsetting for road debris (e.g. tires, tree branches, boxes).
- Improve handling of several scenarios, including unprotected turns, lane changes, vehicle cut-ins, and school buses.
- Improved FSD’s ability to manage system faults and recover smoothly from degraded operation for enhanced reliability.
- Added alerting for residue build-up on interior windshield that may impact front camera visibility. If affected, visit Service for cleaning!
Upcoming Improvements:
- Overall smoothness and sentience
- Parking spot selection and parking quality
SpaceX Starship Version 3 booster crumples in early testing
Tesla FSD (Supervised) is about to go on “widespread” release
