Protecting Tesla Controls from Children

[skip8jj]

Our 3.5 year old granddaughter lives with us and we are taking delivery of a MS next week. She is a 32 lb ball of energy and sometimes manages to get into the front seats our mini van. No unusual behavior just a challenge for us to control. Not much mischief can happen in an old ICE.

However, if she gets into the front of a Tesla, I fear what controls she can manage to interfere with. A key in the ignition is needed to start the van and as long as I have it in my pocket, the van is inert. But with the Tesla fob in my pocket and I'm trying to round up the critter, both of us jumping around on the front seats, how vulnerable to little hands are the controls? I know the 17" display can be blacked out but there are a number of levers/stalks that can be twisted and pushed. If she dives under the steering wheel and I kneel on the seat, she can easily bang the brake peddle and if I have the fob in my pocket, does the Tesla wake-up?

We intend to use the van mostly for transporting her but there will be times when we will have her in the Tesla. How do other parents / grandparents deal with the active child in their Tesla?

Thanks for your comments

 

[SM18]

Starting the car requires pressing the brake pedal and moving the gear selector into Drive or Reverse, there is also a weight requirement on the driver's seat. The weight sensor probably makes it impossible for her to start it without someone else sitting on the driver's seat. The screen itself actually doesn't affect too much regarding driving. Even those options that do, like regenerative braking or steering weight, are on the controls screen which you would notice being opened. Autopilot would probably make it a lot easier to handle an energetic child.

 

[gaswalla]

speaking from experience and not passing judgement:

this is a teachable moment for the parent/granparent/child about discipline, rules, and behavior

 

[kort677]

not wanting to preach but my children were taught that if they weren't buckled in the car did not move, and they were not permitted to be in the car unattended.

 

[skip8jj]

Its that moment when the door opens and she in like a shot and into the front. Someone opens the front door, your arms are full and there she is. She's not undisciplined but very curious and wants to do everything. We take advantage of many teachable moments but she is not a

 

[skip8jj]

Posted before I finished my thought. Enough.