Overheat Protection; Why not a Freeze Mode?

[dho112]

Even though I don’t live in an area where it would be needed, I was always curious why there wasn’t a “Freeze Protection” incorporated in the Tesla software.

Something along the lines of you setting it for an outside temp reading 30, 20, 10 or below Fahrenheit and if the car senses that it will unfold the mirrors to keep them from freezing in the retracted position, put the wipers in service position, and run the defroster and window heat for the rear window for a few minutes every hour to keep ice and snow from building up on the glass. I know it would be an energy suck, but so is overheat protection. You’d just have to be selective when and if you turn it on and it would have a feature like overheat where it would disable the feature if your battery percentage dropped to a level you preset.

Wondering if I should send it into Tesla as a suggestion, or if I’m missing something that would make the idea not useful, impractical.

It’s just that I see dozens of youtube videos about all the precautions you have to take (aside from charge loss) with Teslas when the weather is freezing.

They make aftermarket autopresenting door handles; They should make a retrofit kit to include door handle warmers

 

[henderrj]

Even though I don’t live in an area where it would be needed, I was always curious why there wasn’t a “Freeze Protection” incorporated in the Tesla software.

Something along the lines of you setting it for an outside temp reading 30, 20, 10 or below Fahrenheit and if the car senses that it will unfold the mirrors to keep them from freezing in the retracted position, put the wipers in service position, and run the defroster and window heat for the rear window for a few minutes every hour to keep ice and snow from building up on the glass. I know it would be an energy suck, but so is overheat protection. You’d just have to be selective when and if you turn it on and it would have a feature like overheat where it would disable the feature if your battery percentage dropped to a level you preset.

Wondering if I should send it into Tesla as a suggestion, or if I’m missing something that would make the idea not useful, impractical.

It’s just that I see dozens of youtube videos about all the precautions you have to take (aside from charge loss) with Teslas when the weather is freezing.

For sure would want to make parts of that optional, but I like the idea overall.

 

[rjpjnk]

Great idea. Seems like it would be simple to implement as well. Not so much for windows, but I was thinking it would be useful if you had something in your car that you wanted to protect from freezing.

 

[Yelobird]

Great idea. Seems like it would be simple to implement as well. Not so much for windows, but I was thinking it would be useful if you had something in your car that you wanted to protect from freezing.

Guessing you could technically use “dog mode” for this one off concern. Not sure what value there would be in a freeze protection mode personally. Hasn’t been an issue for cars in 100 years not sure why it would add value now.

 

[rjpjnk]

I’m not sure it has value, it’s just that it would be basically free to implement so why not?

 

[dho112]

Guessing you could technically use “dog mode” for this one off concern. Not sure what value there would be in a freeze protection mode personally. Hasn’t been an issue for cars in 100 years not sure why it would add value now.

But Dog mode wouldn’t put the wipers in service position, or unfold the mirrors. Apparently those can freeze in place if those things aren’t done. I know much of a “Freeze mode” could be done manually (apart from the intermittent running of the defroster and rear window heat throughout the night), but so could turning down the volume of various alert messages at night and yet we have still have Joe Mode. It’s a convenience and since its only actuating existing functions, a free one essentially. And doesn’t dog mode crack the windows open?

Someone mentioned to me that you can just run defroster on a schedule before leaving, while another friend who lives in northern Michigan said that if there was ice forming on the windshield it would be better to use an intermittent method every hour to get rid of “some” ice rather than try to unthaw a nights worth of snow and ice in one go. That could take 2 hours to melt everything using a defroster.

 

[OxBrew]

But Dog mode wouldn’t put the wipers in service position, or unfold the mirrors. Apparently those can freeze in place if those things aren’t done. I know much of a “Freeze mode” could be done manually (apart from the intermittent running of the defroster and rear window heat throughout the night), but so could turning down the volume of various alert messages at night and yet we have still have Joe Mode. It’s a convenience and since its only actuating existing functions, a free one essentially. And doesn’t dog mode crack the windows open?

Someone mentioned to me that you can just run defroster on a schedule before leaving, while another friend who lives in northern Michigan said that if there was ice forming on the windshield it would be better to use an intermittent method every hour to get rid of “some” ice rather than try to unthaw a nights worth of snow and ice in one go. That could take 2 hours to melt everything using a defroster.

I live where it freezes all winter. The defroster down to at least -7°F (-20°C) is fine for after you brush off most of the snow (coldest I've tried it). I hear you don't want to try to defrost large amounts of snow, IDK, might crack the glass roof or something. At least yeah, it will use a lot of energy.

But the rest, yeah, would be great to have a freeze mode button that sets the mirrors/wipers, and maybe starts the climate a bit earlier.

I put the wipers in service mode like 8 times a month, and every time I think this is so dumb. Have to freaking scroll down for it in the service menu. STUPID.

Wife figured out that putting it in reverse cancels wiper service mode, so that's good. Drive should too, I always back in at night. Better than nothing though.