Halloween motoring happenings | Axon’s Automotive Anorak

Spookier than any of these however, is the insane or perhaps inspired ‘Halloween Mode’ that Tesla has released for its North American models just in time for trick or treating at the end of this month. 

American Tesla drivers can update their in-car touch screen system with Halloween Mode by using the car’s ‘Toybox’ function and updating the software. To ‘spread holiday fear year round’ using two toggles, Tesla owners can select special ‘Ghost Costume’ and ‘Trick or Treat’ modes to be activated.

When turned on, the car’s ambient cabin lighting turns a spooky orange, and in Ghost Costume Mode a glowing white sheet with eye (headlight) holes covers the on-screen avatar of the car. In this mode, the car’s background becomes a graveyard with a haunted house, full moon, withered trees, pumpkin lanterns and even a zombie hand clawing out of the dirt. The Tesla’s occupants can interact with the icons by tapping on them and even make the avatar’s doors open when actually opening the car’s doors.

Once on the move, the Tesla’s avatar ghost sheet ripples as the car drives and other passing vehicles glow in green as if infected with ectoplasm. Pedestrians become skeletons with pumpkin lantern faces, traffic lights become coloured pumpkins with traffic cones turning green and white road lines turning purple.

In Trick or Treat Mode, the Tesla can play spooky music through its exterior speakers and flicker all of its exterior and interior lights when people approach the parked car. Halloween Mode also adds four new themed wraps for the on-screen avatar of the car. These range from an orange pumpkin finish with carved faces, and bats and cobwebs, to a black base with white ghosts and bats, a candy-covered trick or treat design with lanterns, or a dark textured finish with Freddie Kruger-style red streaks. 

The car’s indicators can also be changed to add an owl’s hoot layered over the usual sound and owners can speak to their car though the Tesla App’s Boombox with the car repeating their words out loud in a new scary voice. The Tesla can also take and print out spooky images of the car’s occupants through its App Photo Booth option. 

Not to be outdone, Tesla’s domestic American rival Rivian has also recently announced its own special Halloween Mode features for its electric SUV and pick-up truck models. These will enable special seasonal features or themes to be available to all Rivian owners for a limited time, including ‘fun’ features such as the vehicle playing an owl’s hoot when being locked and unlocked and the interior lighting set to a bloody red.

As with Tesla, pedestrians around a Rivian will be displayed as zombies shuffling their undead way around the vehicle, like a scene from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, and a pumpkin will roll out too when the vehicle’s door is opened. Only in America, hey! Happy Halloween.