Tesla Adds Emergency Drive Away So Drivers Can Flee Superchargers While Plugged In

Tesla has rolled out a new software function called Emergency Drive Away, which finally lets a car be shifted into Drive even when a charging cable is still attached to a Supercharger stall. Until this change, a plugged-in Tesla refused to leave Park until the owner unlocked the port from the screen, the app or the cable handle and waited for the latch to release.

The company is blunt about the cost of using it: Tesla states the maneuver will damage both the vehicle and the charging equipment, and warns that intentional abuse could draw unspecified penalties. Emergency Drive Away arrives with software version 2026.38.3, works at US Superchargers, and is not compatible with Model S or Model X units produced before 2021.

The rollout lands about two months after a gunman opened fire at a Supercharger site in Twin Falls, Idaho, killing three people, including a 66-year-old man from Salt Lake City, and wounding several others. Following that attack, owners lobbied for a built-in way to escape a stall without waiting on the charge port, while many turned to a third-party breakaway adapter that Tesla has sued over heat concerns during high-current charging. Tesla has not linked the feature to the shooting, but the timing is difficult to overlook.

Tesla says the capability currently applies only to US stations, though Canadian Superchargers use the same connector. The solution is a rough one: rather than cutting power and releasing the latch cleanly, Tesla removed a software lockout and simply warns drivers they may wreck their car and the charger getting away. It beats being trapped, but the deeper issues behind such attacks remain untouched.