Tesla Driver Leaves Wife In Car With Dog Mode On. Should She Be ‘Offended’?
Hot cars kill hundreds of pets each year.
A stay-at-home mom seemed upset her husband enabled dog mode in his Tesla while she was waiting for him in the vehicle. In a viral TikTok clip, user Kenzie (@mckenzieridings) asked others if she should be offended by his decision to turn this feature on.
“So my husband left me in the Tesla. And if you own a Tesla, if you’re the driver, you get out of the car, the car will shut off,” she says. However, because she was still in the car and her husband didn’t want her to be cooking in a greenhouse on wheels, he enabled a feature that comes standard in Tesla vehicles.
“So this is what he did so the AC will keep running,” she says before flipping the camera’s orientation around to show that the car is in “dog mode.” A graphic on the vehicle’s large infotainment screen shows a white, balloon-animal facsimile of a dog, and a message on the display reads, “My driver will be back soon. Don’t worry! The A/C is on and it’s 63°F.”
Kenzie didn’t seem too pleased with her husband’s decision. “He put it in dog mode,” she says curtly off camera. “And I don’t know whether to just be okay with it or to be offended.”
Preventable Pet Deaths
PETA reports that numerous animals die each year due to pet owners leaving them in hot cars. In 2025 alone, the group indicates there were at least 100 that passed away but goes on to speculate that there are probably many more that go unreported. 2025 also saw 348 animal rescues from hot cars.
Total Vet reported that between 2018 and 2022, there were over 250 heat-related animal deaths in the United States, with most attributed to folks leaving them in hot vehicles. Dog breeding business Snowy River Labradoodles reported that “hundreds of dogs in hot cars die each year in the U.S. alone” and that “thousands” left baking in high temperatures, even for a little while, “suffer irreversible organ damage.” The breeder says heat is far more dangerous to dogs than it is to humans, as their biology makes them more prone to heat stroke.
Dog Mode: Saving Animal Lives?
InsideEVs previously reported on a different Tesla driver’s appreciation of dog mode. In a TikTok clip, she showed how her pup can enjoy a comfortable commute in her EV and how she’s able to monitor the pet via Tesla’s interior camera system. Praise also came from a blog post on EV accessory site Tesevo, calling dog mode “a critical alert system that saves pets.”
FROM THE TRENDING NEWS DESK
Viral bits from across the social media landscape
Our team of experts tracks what's trending so you don't have to—from viral videos to online debates that have everyone talking.
Other EVs also allow drivers to keep a vehicle’s climate control system on while parked. While cars with internal combustion engines can also have their air conditioning or heat engaged when not in drive, they almost always need to have their engines on to do so.
Now Trending
Some hybrid vehicle models can run air conditioning without the help of an actively running engine. The Toyota Prius is one example, as owners on this forum post discuss. However, in this Quora thread, users said the engine will periodically kick on in order to recharge its battery. Drivers in this PriusChat post recommend placing the Prius in “Ready” mode rather than “Accessory” for greater efficiency and to avoid draining the car’s onboard 12-volt battery.
Since Teslas and other EVs are powered by massive lithium-ion battery packs, drivers can run their vehicles’ cooling/heating systems for as long as these units will allow them to.
Split Opinions
Folks who responded to Kenzie’s TikTok had varying opinions on whether she should be offended by the Dog Mode option.
One person commented that she should “be happy” that her husband left the air conditioning on. Another thought the car should have an optional “wife mode” to avoid confusion. Someone else replied with a question of their own, suggesting she shouldn’t be upset about him ensuring the car’s cabin was adequately ventilated: “I mean is there another option to keep the ac running?” they asked.
InsideEVs has reached out to Kenzie via TikTok comment.
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
Tesla Semi Official Battery Specs Are Out, And They’re Impressive
Slate Auto Gets One Step Closer To Building Its Affordable EV Truck
Tesla Wants To Vacuum The Hot Air Out Of Cars To Improve Range
This New Tech Completely Changes How The Brake Pedal Works
Teslas And Hybrids Were Some Of The Fastest-Selling Used Cars In March
Kempower’s New EV Fast Charger Can Do What Tesla’s Supercharger Can’t
Europe May Not Be Ready For Tesla FSD Yet. Regulators Still Want Answers