Back in May, we reported on a potential improvement coming to Tesla’s Car Wash Mode that would help owners avoid a common, yet costly,
While Car Wash Mode makes it more convenient to go to a car wash by automatically disabling your auto wipers, setting your climate controls to recirculate, turning off parking chimes, and even closing your windows (everything Car Wash Mode monitors), there’s one thing it didn’t do.
If you or someone in your vehicle opened their window after Car Wash Mode was enabled, the vehicle wouldn’t warn you that a window is open, unlike it does for other items, such as an open trunk or charge port door.
A user on X first raised the issue, requesting that Tesla warn users about open windows. Troy Jones, the sales executive in North America at the time, replied that he would share the suggestion with the team.
With the rollout of software update 2025.26, Tesla has now added windows to the list of items that the vehicle monitors while Car Wash Mode is enabled. While this feature arrived in update 2025.26, it was undocumented by Tesla in the release notes (we’ve got you covered, Tesla).
This small and thoughtful quality-of-life update provides an extra layer of security before the inside of your vehicle gets soaked, which is something we’re sure everyone wants to avoid.
What It Looks Like
When a driver activates Car Wash Mode, the vehicle will still close any open windows. However, it’ll now continuously monitor and warn you if any windows are opened.
If a single window is opened, the vehicle will show which window is open by displaying, “Rear passenger side window open,” or a similar message. If multiple windows are open, the vehicle will display the number of open windows, or show “All windows open.”
For parents - this one is likely doubly helpful, as your kids may be the (accidental) culprits behind your vehicle getting an inside-out wash.
Either way, it is a nice little feature that we’re happy to see rolling out with this update.
It’s great to see Tesla close the feedback loop between owners, executives, and their engineers. It’s one of the reasons that so many users love their Teslas and the improvements that each update brings.
So if you didn’t have enough reasons to enjoy update 2025.26, especially if you have Grok and the amazing Light Sync feature, Tesla added another one to the list — even if they didn’t list it in their release notes.
