{"id":5135,"date":"2017-12-18T11:19:53","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T03:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/?p=5135"},"modified":"2021-07-29T03:17:27","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T19:17:27","slug":"tesla-mazda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/blog\/tesla-mazda\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla\u2019s \u201cBioweapon Defense Mode\u201d Is as Effective As\u2026A 2010 Mazda?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tesla rolled out its \u201cbioweapon defense mode\u201d to lots of fanfare and media attention.\u00a0<\/span>Tesla went big:<\/p>\n

\u201cBioweapon Defense Mode is not a marketing statement, it is real. You can literally survive a military grade bio attack by sitting in your car.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"tesla\"<\/p>\n

Elon’s telling the truth, but not the whole truth. Tests I\u2019ve done show that most cars already have a “bioweapon defense mode”: it’s called an air filter.<\/p>\n

Like the true nerd that I am, I emailed Tesla and offered up my data.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not surprised they didn\u2019t respond, but it makes me feel absolved about doing a take-down on their press release.<\/p>\n

Tesla Bioweapon Defense Mode vs. Ohad\u2019s 2010 Mazda<\/h3>\n

Tesla\u00a0<\/span>released a test<\/a>\u00a0of how fast its bioweapon defense mode could reduce tiny particles. They even put the Tesla in a huge plastic bubble to do the test.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And the results were impressive. Particulate dropped dramatically in less than 5 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But when I saw the graph, it reminded me of tests I did with the help of Smart Air aficionado Ohad in Israel. We were wondering air is any better inside cars, so Ohad used a\u00a0<\/span>Dylos laser particle counter<\/a>\u00a0to track what happened to particulate levels after he turned on the AC in his 2010 Mazda 3.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ohad did nothing special to his Mazda. He put in no special filter. The filter was just whatever was already in the car. He didn\u2019t even put in a new one. Here\u2019s what the tests in Ohad\u2019s Mazda looked like.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Since the Tesla graph reminded me so much of the Mazda data, I lined up the data sets to the same baseline particle level and put the graphs on top of each other. The red line is the Tesla data; the blueline is Ohad\u2019s Mazda data.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ohad\u2019s Mazda was almost identically strong\u2014just about 30 seconds slower than the Tesla bioweapon defense mode. You can read more about the\u00a0<\/span>shockingly awesome car air systems in this test<\/a>. Based on this data, I guess all car companies should start advertising their vehicles as bioweapon defenses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well maybe there\u2019s something special about Mazdas?<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve tested this in more cars by calling Ubers in Shanghai and Delhi and bringing along my particle counter, and the results were similar (see one test here<\/a>). Cars have filters in them, not just Mazdas. Those filters are not HEPA filters, but the data shows they do a great job of reducing particulate. Just make sure to:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Close your windows<\/li>\n
  2. Run the air system on recirculate mode<\/li>\n
  3. Get your filter replaced regularly<\/li>\n
  4. Don\u2019t waste money getting a special particulate purifier for your car (unless your car somehow doesn\u2019t have a filter)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    <\/h3>\n

    OK, OK, is there nothing special about the Tesla?<\/h3>\n

    I should be fair to Tesla. Their system\u00a0<\/span>also includes an activated carbon filter<\/a>. Regular cars don\u2019t have that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Our car filters can remove particles, but carbon can reduce certain gases, like ozone. In my mind, that\u2019s what could really set the Tesla bioweapon defense mode apart (and what I would have suggested that they advertise), but they\u2019re presenting tests of the thing that our cars are already really good at. Maybe my message will get through, and they\u2019ll publish tests of gas pollutants.<\/p>\n

    For now, I decided to lend my marketing skills to spice up the marketing for Ohad\u2019s 2010 Mazda:<\/p>\n

    \u201c[Ohad\u2019s Mazda] is not a marketing statement, it is real. You can literally survive a military grade bio attack by sitting in [Ohad\u2019s 2010 Mazda 3].\u201d<\/p>\n

    And I couldn\u2019t help but ask Smart Air Photoshop Wizard Yongxin to photoshop Elon Musk next to Ohad\u2019s Mazda:<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Open Data<\/h3>\n

    As always, I made\u00a0<\/span>the raw data for the car filter tests open source<\/a>, along with more details on the methodology for fellow data nerds.<\/p>\n

    Breathe safe!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Tesla rolled out its \u201cbioweapon defense mode\u201d to lots of fanfare and media attention.\u00a0Tesla went big: \u201cBioweapon Defense Mode is not a marketing statement, it is real. You can literally survive a military grade bio attack by sitting in your car.\u201d Elon’s telling the truth, but not the whole truth. … <\/p>\n

    Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1035,"featured_media":5136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,259,262],"tags":[272,278,303,305,229,228,304],"class_list":["post-5135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air-pollution","category-filters","category-reviews","tag-air-pollution","tag-air-quality","tag-bioweapon-defense-mode","tag-car-air-purifier","tag-mazda","tag-tesla","tag-wildfires","resize-featured-image"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1035"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5135"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18034,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5135\/revisions\/18034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}