Electric auto manufacturer Tesla has revealed that its new cars will be able to withstand a military-grade bio-attack, with the ability to purify fatally polluted air within two minutes. The “Bioweapon Defense Mode” will be built into the air filtration systems of its Model S and X vehicles, and filter out bacteria, allergens, and viruses. To prove that the feature actually works, engineers subjected a Model X to what they called “extreme levels of pollution,” exposing it to air close to 100 times more contaminated than what the EPA defines as “good.”
When the car was set to “Bioweapon Defense Mode,” it took less than two minutes to cleanse the air inside the car, according to a blog post Tesla published on Monday. It was safe enough for testers to remove their gas masks.
CEO Elon Musk declared that the company want to be “a leader in apocalyptic defense scenarios,” and that “the Bioweapon Defense Mode is not a marketing statement, it is real.”
The Tesla Model S and X vehicles, equipped with the new “Bioweapon Defense Mode,” are now available to order at TeslaMotors.com.