Using seat belts and child safety seats is the most effective way to protect occupants if a collision occurs. Therefore, wearing a seat belt is required by law in most jurisdictions.
Both the driver and passenger seats are equipped with three-point inertia reel seat belts. Inertia reel belts are automatically tensioned to allow occupants to move comfortably during normal driving conditions. To securely hold child safety seats, all passenger seating positions are equipped with an automatic locking retractor (ALR) feature that, by fully extracting the seat belt (beyond the length needed for a typical adult occupant), locks the belt into place until the seat belt is unbuckled.
The seat belt reel automatically locks to prevent movement of occupants if Model S experiences a force associated with hard acceleration, braking, cornering, or an impact in a collision.
Seat Belt Reminders
The seat belt reminder on the instrument panel alerts you if a seat belt for an occupied driver or passenger seat is unbuckled. If all occupants are buckled up and the reminder stays on, re-buckle seat belts to ensure they are correctly latched. Also remove any heavy objects (such as a briefcase) from an unoccupied seat. If the reminder light continues to stay on, contact Tesla.
You can temporarily disable a seat belt reminder associated with a rear seating position. This is useful when you are carrying an object in a rear seat that triggers the seat belt reminder alert. To disable the reminder, touch the associated seat on the seat belt reminder popup message that displays on the touchscreen when a seat belt reminder is active. When a reminder is disabled, the seat belt reminder icon is replaced by a seat icon, for the current drive only. Touch the seat again to re-enable the reminder.
WARNING: Seat belts must be worn by passengers in all seating positions. Do not disable a seat belt reminder when the seating position is occupied by a passenger.