Why does the new Tesla have a ‘Bioweapon Defense Mode’?

Elon Musk’s much-anticipated Tesla Model X caused a stir online after car enthusiasts began wondering why the all-electric SUV is equipped with “bioweapon defense mode.”

“Model X is the safest, fastest and most capable sport utility vehicle in history,” Tesla says on its website.

To the safety point, the carmaker includes a button to allow drivers to switch on an advance filtering system to keep cabin occupants safe from viruses and bacteria, in addition to other environmental hazards.

Via The Verge:

“This is a real button,” said Musk, who was all too ready to have to defend the existence of the outrageous feature. He was in the middle of discussing how clean the Model X is when it comes to air quality both in and out of the car (the air cleanliness is “on the levels of a hospital room,” he said) when things got dark.

The button should come in handy “if there’s ever an apocalyptic scenario of some kind,” he said. All you apparently have to do is push the button and the Model X’s air filter — which is about 10 times larger than a normal car’s air filter — should be able to keep you safe. The company claims it’s 300 times better at filtering bacteria, 500 times better at filtering allergens, 700 times better at filtering smog, and 800 times better at filtering viruses.

Experts, however, aren’t convinced that the car’s filtering system would actually work.

As Gizmodo reported:

[V]iruses are much smaller than bacteria, which means they’re harder to filter out of the air. “Well, 0.3 micrometer won’t hold back viruses. It will hold back most bacteria, but it won’t hold back viruses. So, if you believe that all bioterrorist agents are bacteria, then you’ll get an increment of protection,” said Michael J. Buchmeier, deputy director of the Pacific Southwest Regional Center for Biodefense and Emerging Diseases at the University of California, Irvine.

Smallpox, for instance, is between 200 and 300 nanometers wide, which means it’s right on the edge of a standard HEPA filter’s effectiveness, so — assuming you were driving through a cloud of aerosolized smallpox particles for some reason — it’s possible that some might still get through the filter. And the influenza A virus is 80-120 nanometers wide, so it can pass through even a 0.2 micrometer HEPA filter without a problem. “It’s a statistical game that we play,” said Buchmeier. “Any filter like that is going to be efficient to a degree but it’s not necessarily 100% efficient.”

As to why the mode was included, Musk said: “We’re trying to be a leader in apocalyptic defense scenarios.”

The post Why does the new Tesla have a ‘Bioweapon Defense Mode’? appeared first on Personal Liberty®.

from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2015/10/01/why-does-the-new-tesla-have-a-bioweapon-defense-mode/

from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2015/10/01/why-does-the-new-tesla-have-a-bioweapon-defense-mode/