California, Tesla’s home state, is currently on fire as the current wildfire season is proving to be particularly devastating.
CEO Elon Musk has authorized Tesla employees to provide assistance for the wildfires and not worry about payment.
Several wildfires have been extremely destructive in California this week.
The one that destroyed the northern California city of Paradise has been deemed “the most destructive in state history in terms of structures burned” and several people died, according to news reports.
Today, thousands of people have been evacuated in Southern California due to different wildfires.
In an email sent to all Tesla employees tonight and obtained by Electrek, Musk told that if Tesla can help they should go ahead and provide assistance:
“If there’s any way for Tesla to be helpful, please provide assistance and don’t worry about payment.”
Tesla has often provided help in disaster situations. For example, it quickly shipped Powerwalls to Puerto Rico after hurricanes destroyed the local electric grid.
Now there are disasters in the company’s own backyard. Tesla has several facilities and tens of thousands of employees in California.
After sending the email to employees, Musk suggested on Twitter that Tesla could help transport people through problematic areas with Model S and Model X vehicles due to their air filtration system:
If Tesla can help people in California wildfire, please let us know. Model S & X have hospital grade HEPA filters. Maybe helpful for transporting people.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 10, 2018
In Model S and Model X, Tesla has a HEPA air filter system, which it claims is the most advanced air filter system in a passenger car.
The automaker says that it is about 10 times larger than a normal car filter and it is “100 times more effective than premium automotive filters” as it removes “at least 99.97% of fine particulate matter and gaseous pollutants, as well as bacteria, viruses, pollen and mold spores.”
It is even equipped with a “bioweapon defense mode”, which Tesla argued “is not a marketing statement and you can literally survive a military grade bio attack by sitting in your car.”
Musk suggests that it could help while driving through the wildfires, which is problematic:
Some owners have been reporting much better air quality inside Tesla vehicles in areas close to the wildfires:
Horrible Bay Area air quality due to Paradise, CA fire… Check out this laser particle counter "Window Up / Window Down" test using the Model X Bio-Defense filter. Thank you Tesla! pic.twitter.com/iefEtRStqy
— ☮️ CYBER-DX (@AndreiBulu) November 9, 2018
Update: The automaker also found another way to help: Tesla makes Supercharging free for owners affected by California wildfires
If you want to help, you can donate through the Red Cross’ Wildfire Relief and some efforts are being put together for specific areas hit by the recent wildfires.
As for Tesla, if you have any idea how it could help, let us know in the comment section below.
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