Imagine this: you’re about to hand your car over to a parking or car cleaning valet. At this moment, you want to feel confident that nothing will go wrong. You certainly don’t want a stranger taking your Tesla for a covert test drive and doing damage in the process.
Happily, Tesla has got you covered in this area. Every Tesla model comes equipped with something called ‘Valet Mode’.
When this operational mode is activated, a number of restrictions are put in place on the vehicle’s functionality, including things like speed, acceleration, access to the glove box and trunk, and the ability to view private data such as your home address.
If your Tesla has the autopilot function—as all recently purchased Teslas do, and many other, older iterations feature as an upgrade—this will also be off the menu for any stranger behind the wheel.
Are you ready to discover how to put your Tesla in Valet Mode? Read on as we break this calm-inducing feature down for you.
How Valet Mode Restricts Your Tesla’s Functionality
Before we get into how to put a Tesla in Valet Mode, let’s begin by covering exactly what this mode does—and exactly what it prevents.
When your Tesla is put into Valet mode, the speed will be limited to 70mph (113 kph) and the maximum power and acceleration will be substantially reduced.
Autopilot features will also be disabled, the front trunk and glove box will lock and remain locked until Valet Mode is canceled.
In terms of what can and can’t be accessed via your touch screen, the navigation system will hide your saved locations, including Home and Work. Driver Profiles will not be accessible, nor will your Tesla meetings schedule and calendar if you have these features installed.
HomeLink will be disabled—if it’s available in your market region—so your automatic garage opening function won’t work. For Model 3 and Model Y Teslas, the list of associated keys will also not be visible.
The voice commands function will go offline while the car is in Valet Mode, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will be disabled. This means that the driver cannot pair new Bluetooth devices, change the settings for existing ones, or use the Allow Mobile Access function. Although, if an already-paired phone with the mobile app is in range of the vehicle, its full functionality will continue.
How to Put Your Tesla In Valet Mode
To put your Tesla in Valet Mode, with the vehicle in Park, touch the driver profile icon at the top of the touchscreen and then touch Valet Mode.
If this is the first time you are using this feature, you will be prompted to create a 4-digit pin. Don’t forget this number, as you’ll use it to cancel Valet Mode later.
As an alternative, you can use the mobile app to start and stop Valet Mode. Once again with the vehicle in Park, select Valet Mode on your app screen. You’ll notice that there is no pin prompt this time. This is because your phone connection is already considered secure because you logged in using your Tesla Account credentials.
Having successfully put the car into Valet Mode, you’ll be able to see the word Valet displayed clearly on the touchscreen, and the driver profile will have disappeared.
Note that if your PIN to Drive setting is enabled, you will have to enter the driving PIN before you can activate Valet Mode. Once the car has switched into Valet Mode, the driving PIN will not function until Valet Mode is canceled again.
A final thing to know about Valet Mode is that drivers of a Model Y or Model X Tesla must not use this mode when towing a trailer. The torque limitations that are enforced will make it unsafe to pull a trailer uphill in Valet Mode.
How to Cancel Valet Mode
The valet has returned your car in perfect condition and its time for you to take over. So how do you cancel Valet Mode on a Tesla?
As you would expect, canceling Valet Mode is very simple. Put the car in Park, tap the Valet Mode driver profile icon on your dashboard touchscreen, and enter your 4-digit Valet Mode pin as prompted.
If you’d rather cancel Valet Mode using your phone, you can switch this function off without the need for a pin. If, however, you find that you don’t have your phone with you and you’ve forgotten the pin you set, don’t panic. You can simply reset Valet Mode by entering your Tesla Account credentials on the touchscreen.
As soon as your normal driving mode is restored, your usual settings will return, including the most recently used driver profile and climate control settings.
Now you can continue your journey, knowing that your Tesla has not come to any harm and that your personal details have remained secure at all times.