Perhaps Tesla's biggest draw is the cool technology hidden inside it. One such feature is called Dog Mode. Basically, it is designed to allow owners to safely leave their dogs in the car in order to adjust the cabin temperature to keep them safe and comfortable. However, new reports indicate that there is a problem with dog mode, and you could be leaving your furry friend under dangerous temperatures while you're out and about.

First reported by a Reddit user (via Road and Track), firmware version 2024.20.1 is not cooling the car the way it should, which could leave your dog in dangerous heat. 'This morning I left my dog in the car, turned on dog mode and set the temperature to 19 degrees. Ten minutes after leaving the car, my phone displayed a warning that there was a "problem with dog mode..." When I ran outside to help my dog, it was 29 degrees inside the car and the temperature had skyrocketed," the post reads.

Thankfully, my phone alerted me that the dog mode was not working properly. They also claimed that the air conditioner was having difficulty keeping up with the cooling in the car's keep-climate-on mode, so it could be a problem with the air conditioning system while the vehicle was not moving. They later updated their post to state that Keep is working again, but they have not yet tried Dog mode.

The user reported the issue to Tesla, but was told it needed to be sent to the technical review team to figure out what was going on. The company then stated that "remote testing has confirmed that there is an issue with the Dog Mode firmware at this time.

Dog mode or not, it is never a good idea to leave a dog in a car for extended periods of time. This is just one example of why trusting your pet's life to a feature like dog mode is a bad decision. Thankfully, there have been no reports of dogs dying due to malfunctions with this feature, but it can happen and is not worth the risk.

The first report was made a week ago, and there has yet to be any official word from Tesla on the matter. An update with version number 2024.20.3 has been pushed; it is mentioned that "the A/C cools the cabin faster," but there is no mention of a fix for the dog mode. For the time being, we recommend avoiding this mode until a fix is available.

Alternatively, do not leave your dog in the car regardless of the dog mode status.