I just noticed I always have recycled air on and today it switched to non recirculated air mode without me touching it and switched back a few hrs later after a restart.

is this some sort of safety feature?

 

I've heard of some cars if they smell something nasty will switch it to Recirculated air to keep the smell out of the cabin.

However, I switch mine to recirculated air whenever I have the windows up and the A/C blasting. But it never switches to Fresh Air.

I do switch it to Fresh Air when I roll the windows down, but it does not switch back.

May have something going on with your system.

Not to sure.

 

When you have the Auto Temperature on and the difference between outside and inside temperatures are too great, the system switches to “recirculation mode” so that the temperature can be brought to the required level ASAP. After it reaches the required temperature it will switch back to fresh air mode.

IMO, it is an efficiency feature rather than a safety feature.

 

Yup. It explains it in the manual.