Tesla's New 'Tap to Park' Autopark Feature [Updated With Video]

By Not a Tesla App Staff
Tesla is launching its improved Autopark feature
Tesla is launching its improved Autopark feature

Tesla has released the much-anticipated new Autopark feature that is expected to be based on the new neural networks that power FSD Beta v12.

Teslas have had Autopark capability for several years, although it has several shortcomings, besides not being available to any recent vehicles that do not include ultrasonic sensors (USS).

This refined version of Autopark is available as part of update 2024.2.11, although the update appears to be limited to employees at this time.

This new iteration of Autopark is expected to be a big improvement over the previous version. According to Musk, it contains “major improvements” over the previous version.

Video

Update: The first video of the new Autopark feature is now available thanks to X user Space Cat, who drives a Model Y with Enhanced Autopilot and without ultrasonic sensors. In the video below you can see the new parking visuals and how easily the vehicle detects parking spots, something the current Autopark feature struggles with.

The driver can pick from any of the highlighted spots. It’s impressive how the vehicle shifts to drive or reverse depending on what’s needed. This appears to be similar behavior to what we’ll see in FSD, according to Tesla’s Autopilot director.

Tesla made the process to initial Autopark easy with this release. The vehicle automatically displays available parking spots and defaults to one nearby. All the driver has to do is stop the vehicle and tap ‘Start’ on the screen to start Autopark. There’s no need to tap a button to have the vehicle detect parking spots or even to select a particular spot, unless you have a preference.

Tap a Parking Spot and Exit the Vehicle?

Musk has been talking about the new ‘Tap to Park’ feature for several months. In December 2023, Musk said "We are working on a feature where the car identifies probable viable parking spaces. You tap on one, exit the vehicle and it parks there."

The release notes in this version don't mention the ability to exit the vehicle before the vehicle starts parking, although it sounds like that's Tesla's goal for this feature. This first iteration could be Tesla's MVP (Minimal Viable Product) that they'd like to ship and they'll slowly add on features as the feature is refined.

There are several hints beyond Musk's comment that Tesla will eventually support tapping a parking spot on the screen and allow the driver to exit the vehicle while the car parks itself.

A look under the hood at Tesla's recent app update showed that Tesla is building Autopark features into the app, hinting that you may even be able to initiate Autopark directly from your phone in the future.

This is very similar to what you can already do with Summon on vehicles with USS. From your device, you can wake up the vehicle and have it drive a short distance to you. It's not far-fetched to think that Tesla has sights on being able to do this in reverse.

Available to Vehicles Without USS

Tesla has been delivering vehicles without USS, Autopark, and Smart Summon for over a year now. This updated feature is expected to have improved vision to make up for the lack of USS. A similar situation occurred with Park Assist, where vehicles without USS could no longer show distances to objects when parking.

Tesla then introduced High-Fidelity Park Assist in the holiday update and surprised everyone with what they were able to accomplish. Instead of just displaying distances to objects, Tesla created 3D models of surrounding objects and colored them based on the vehicle's proximity.

High-Fidelity Park Assist is still limited to vehicles without USS, but we know Tesla is working on adding the feature to vehicles that include ultrasonic sensors as well. It's not clear whether the new Autopark may also only be rolled out to vehicles without USS, or if it'll be available to all vehicles at the same time.

Autopark is part of Tesla’s Enhance Autopilot (EAP) suite, so only users with EAP or FSD are expected to receive the feature when it rolls out.

Improved Visuals and Selection

The image Tesla released shows an improvement in Autopark visuals. The current iteration of Autopark only shows one parking spot at once, and it's difficult to even have that come up on the screen.

This new version appears to be a drastic improvement, not only outlining a parking spot on the display but also displaying various parking spots at once - including parallel spaces.

According to the release notes, the parking spots will appear any time you're driving slowly through a parking lot, although the exact speed isn't specified.

Improved Autopark

Musk previously talked about a vast improvement in the new Autopark, which he called Tap to Park. This new Autopark is expected to be based on the same neural networks that power FSD Beta v12, which has been a drastic improvement over FSD Beta v11.4.9. We should see a much improved Autopark experience when this feature becomes available to Tesla owners.

Although the previous version of Autopark worked, it was difficult to have it detect a parking spot and display it on the screen. It often also parked very slowly, making it less almost useless if there were other vehicles around. However, the result was usually quite good, with the vehicle parking safely and well between the parking lines. We expect the two shortcomings of the current Autopark to be drastically improved in this latest revision.

Public Roll Out / Release Date

Just a few days ago, Musk revealed that Tesla would release a new version of Summon (Actually Smart Summon) and a new Autopark feature with "major improvements" next month (April).

It's surprising to see this feature added to update 2024.2.11 when Tesla is already rolling out 2024.8.4. This leads us to believe that this update may be currently in a testing phase with employees and is not yet ready to go to a public release.

When Tesla is ready to ship this feature to owners, we'll likely see it introduced in a revision to 2024.8, or even the next major update, which could be 2024.12.

Either way, it looks like we'll be getting it fairly soon, and if the new Autopark has anywhere near the improvements in Tesla's FSD Beta v12.3, then we're in for a real treat.

Tesla Vehicles on 2024.8 Are Now Receiving FSD V12 With Update 2024.14.6

By Not a Tesla App Staff

Tesla has finally issued an update that will give owners on Tesla update 2024.8.x access to FSD v12. Yesterday Tesla released update 2024.14.6, which includes FSD v12.3.6, the latest version of FSD. FSD v12 is also available on update 2024.14.5, however this release appears to have stopped going out. FSD v12.3.6 is the same version that FSD owners have with update 2024.3.25.

Updating to FSD v12

FSD v12 was previously based on branch 2024.3, and since Tesla doesn't allow vehicles to roll back in software versions, it meant that FSD v12 was only available to vehicles on update 2024.2 or older. This became an issue for vehicles already on update 2024.8.x, which included FSD v11.

FSD Trial

FSD v12 came with a free one-month trial which started going out last month, however, vehicles on 2024.8.x weren’t eligible for FSD v12 and therefore weren’t eligible for the free trial. With update 2024.14.6, these vehicles will finally be eligible for FSD v12 and should receive their one-month trial of the software.

Rollout

The rollout has just started, so in typical Tesla fashion, it'll slowly roll out to more and more vehicles. 2024.14.6 has so far only been released in the U.S. and appears to focus on getting users onto FSD v12. It's currently available to about 1% of the Tesla fleet. Keep a close eye on our 2024.14.6 rollout statistics page to see when new waves go out.

Update 2024.14.6

FSD Supervised 12.3.6
Installed on 1.7% of fleet
62 Installs today
Last updated: May 11, 12:30 pm UTC

Vehicles Already on FSD v12

For vehicles already on FSD v12 with update 2024.3.25, they’re also eligible for this update, which won’t include any improvements to FSD, but it’ll include the vast amount of new features in update 2024.14, as well as the features that were on update 2024.8 that they’re skipping over.

These vehicles will receive access to 2024.8 features such as one-time charge limits, ultra-wideband phone key support for the new Model S and Model X, and various undocumented changes such as updated turn signal icons, new WiFi and Bluetooth menus and more.

Best Videos and Photos of Tesla Update 2024.14 Features in Action

By Not a Tesla App Staff

The latest Tesla update 2024.14 is full of exciting features, including a fresh design, an updated media player, full-screen visualizations, and so much more. This number of features in this update rivals holiday updates when Tesla usually releases the biggest features of the year.

Below you’ll find photos and videos of each of the major new features in this Tesla update.

High Fidelity Autopark

With update 2024.14.5, we're seeing the Park Assist Upgrade which creates 3D versions of the vehicle’s environment in real-time added to vehicles with ultrasonic sensors (USS) for the first time.

Vehicles without USS received this feature as part of the 2023 holiday update.

Parked Visualization

One of the biggest upgrades of Tesla OS v12 is the new visuals while parked. This feature is available on the Model 3 and Model Y with the AMD-powered infotainment center. 

While parked the vehicle is displayed beautifully front and center, while also displaying a snippet of the map in the top right corner. At the bottom of the screen, you have the ‘Navigate To’ module and the media player.

New Media Player

Tesla says the new media player is also part of the visual upgrade in v12, and therefore will only be available on AMD vehicles, however, we think it may become available on Intel-based vehicles in the future.

The new media player makes commonly used actions easily accessible instead of having to expand the media player. Options such as shuffle, repeat, and search are now one tap away, instead of having to expand the media player to access these features.

The new media player is a vast improvement. It now features a more obvious progress bar, and a translucent background, letting the vehicle visualizations shine through. For a full run-down of the new media player, including its new minimized version and a video of the player in action, check out our in-depth look at Tesla’s new audio player.

Tesla's new media payer on the Model 3 and Model Y
Tesla's new media payer on the Model 3 and Model Y

Full-Screen Visualization

Full-screen visualizations are no longer tied to FSD and are now available outside of North America for the time. The visualizations themselves are also improved but don’t display the full plethora of visualizations available with FSD. More vehicles are now visualized and additional features such as turn signals are now displayed.

The full-screen visualization view, which is accessible by dragging the edge of the visualization to the right, offers several improvements over the FSD version available in North America. The new media player and navigate to box will now always be present centered on the screen. A small view of the navigation maps is also displayed in the corner, similar to the visualization while parked.

Although full-screen visualizations are available on Intel-based vehicles with FSD in North America, Tesla marked this feature as AMD Ryzen-specific, although that could change in the future.

Audible

Tesla has added the Audible audiobook service with update 2024.14. The media player has useful buttons to skip forward and back 15 seconds, as well as adjust the playback speed. Tesla is also expected to launch Amazon Music in the future.

Tesla is adding the Audible audiobook service in update 2024.14
Tesla is adding the Audible audiobook service in update 2024.14

Hands-free Trunk

A pleasant surprise in this update was the ability to open your trunk hands-free. The feature works by having you stand directly behind the vehicle for a couple of seconds, the vehicle will then sound chimes as a warning before opening the trunk for you.

The feature takes advantage of the newer ultrawide band (UWB) protocol, which allows for low energy and extremely high precision location tracking. With UWB, Tesla can accurately tell where the person is in relation to the vehicle and how much they’re moving. The only vehicles that include ultrawide band are the redesigned versions of the Model S and Model X, the new Model 3 and the Cybertruck, however, the feature hasn't been implemented in the Cybertruck in this update.

The video below shows how the hands-free trunk works and tests it out in a variety of cases.

Preview of Sentry Mode

Another long-awaited feature is the ability to view Sentry Mode footage from your phone. In update 2024.14, Tesla will now send you a notification whenever there is a Sentry Mode event. Attached to the notification and accessible through the app is a short video clip of the Sentry Mode event.

Trip Progress

The trip progress bar sees a nice improvement that was previously available in China. Not only can you now see a visual representation of your trip's progress, but the timeline of the trip is also color-coded to show you traffic density along your trip.

This is useful to let you know about potential traffic later on on your trip. The entire module has also been refreshed to have a more modern design. Some information has been moved around such as your ETA and distance to your destination are now the two bits of information at the top of the module.

The progress bar shows traffic along your entire route
The progress bar shows traffic along your entire route
@greggertruck

Wiper Controls

Tesla automatic wiper controls have always been problematic, but Tesla is at least now giving us more intuitive wiper controls that let you easily switch the wiper speed.

After this update, there are two new ways to change the wiper speed. You can press the wiper button on the left stalk, or the wiper button on the new Model 3, and then use the left scroll wheel to scroll up and down to adjust the wiper speed. This was available before, but previously required you to tilt the scroll wheel left and right.

You can now also tap the wiper button on the stalk multiple times to go up to the next speed.

Full-Screen Browser

A small, but very useful feature that is buried in the release notes is the internet browser's new "full screen" button. This new feature is only available while you're parked, but it gives you the ability to easily view any website full-screen. This is especially useful when streaming video in your vehicle while parked and not being limited to the choices in Tesla’s Theater app.

Rear Screen Updates

The rear screen is also receiving a couple of upgrades. The first is that there will now be a status bar along the top of the screen that displays the current time, temperature and estimated time of arrival to your destination so that rear passengers can easily stay up to date on relevant information.

In addition to this new information, Tesla will now turn off the rear screen when there is no one seated in the rear seats, helping improve the vehicle's efficiency. 

Vehicles with rear screens will now display the time, temperature and ETA to destination
Vehicles with rear screens will now display the time, temperature and ETA to destination
@greggertruck (edited by Not a Tesla App)

Improved Cybertruck Frunk

The Cybertruck is the first Tesla vehicle to receive an auto closing frunk. While it received some criticism when it was first released around potential dangers when auto closing, Tesla is now addressing this issue with this update. The frunk is now a lot more sensitive to objects that may be in the way, however, as one video shows us, you probably shouldn’t put your finger in it.

Auto Shift

Auto Shift is getting two upgrades with this update. The first is a redesign to the feature, which now makes it more compact, leaving additional room for the gear indicator and the media player instead of going from top to bottom on the left side of the screen.

The Model S and Model X are also receiving improvements to the auto shifting functionality. The vehicle will now be able to shift automatically from Drive to Reverse and from Reverse to Drive in some situations, instead of just auto shifting out of Park.

This feature is expected to arrive for the new Model 3 and the Cybertruck in the future as well.

Average Speed Zones UI

Average speed zones, which are used to control speeds over certain periods of roads are now supported in Teslas as well. In countries where this type of speed limit is used, the vehicle will keep track of your average speed and let you know when the average speed zone section started and when it will end.

New Lock Sounds for Exclusive to the Cybertruck

The Cybertruck has received nine exclusive features in this update, including new lock sounds that are unique to the vehicle.

To use a lock sound, instead of the standard honk when you lock your vehicle, go to the Toybox and navigate to Boombox. You can also create your own custom lock sound by putting it on your USB drive. You can browse our huge list of custom lock sounds to find the perfect one.

Tesla update 2024.14 is very slowly going to the fleet, although it’s currently only available to a small percentage of the entire fleet. Hopefully, Tesla will resume the rollout in larger waves in the near future.

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Although we share official Tesla release notes, we are not affiliated with Tesla Motors. We are Tesla fans and supporters.

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