When Tesla revealed the "Smart Summon" feature in September of 2019, the potential for automated parking was engineered into existence. Smart Summon is a Full Self-Driving feature that allows owners to bring their car to them using the mobile app. The feature is useful in helping owners safely summon their vehicle from tight spaces, especially narrow parking spots. While Tesla owners have had mixed reviews of Smart Summon, the convenience of this feature became abundantly clear in a viral 2020 video that shows a Tesla Model Y exiting a flooded parking spot with ease.
This video proved the practicality of the Smart Summon feature, which allowed the user to retrieve their Model Y in a sticky situation where access was obstructed by unforeseen weather conditions. Although Tesla’s current Smart Summon feature is a step in the right direction for fully automated parking, Tesla owners are more enthusiastic about Reverse Summon. Reverse Summon would allow an owner to get out of their vehicle at the entrance to a building and have the vehicle automatically find a parking spot and park itself.
When asked about the feature in March of 2020, Elon Musk responded: “We need to finish work on Autopilot core foundation code & 3D labelling, then functionality will happen quickly. Not long now.” A year later, Autopilot & 3D labelling have improved drastically but not much has been said about the new feature. New information from an unsubstantiated Reddit post reveals that we could see the Reverse Summon feature in an upcoming update very soon.
In the Reddit post, user u/110110 states that Tesla's "Reverse Summon" feature has supposedly been made available to engineers for testing, meaning it's getting closer to wide release. The insider also mentions that the feature would include parking options such as "closest to the door", "near cart returns", or "end of the parking lot". This makes Reverse Summon a much more dynamic feature than Smart Summon in that the user is able to pick how and where the vehicle is parked, based on their preference. Thus far, Tesla engineers’ reviews of the feature have been “quite good”. Based on this news, we could soon see reverse summon released as "Smart Park, or Self-Parking" later this year although the feature name and release date is yet to be officially confirmed.
While the Smart Summon feature is advantageous for retrieving a parked car, reverse summon could prove to be a more useful and practical use of the vehicle's full self-driving capabilities. This feature would enable the vehicle to find an appropriate parking spot for the owner which would effectively accomplish fully automated parking.
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Tesla has begun to reach out to customers in the United States and is offering demo drives of the Cybertruck on an invite-only basis. @brandonhd on X shared the first invite image, and it looks like it's going out quite quickly to multiple locations that have Cybertrucks on display.
Up until now, display vehicles have been for just that – looking, but no touching. Some Tesla delivery centers and showrooms have also allowed viewers to take a seat inside and open it up, but most are still locked away behind the velvet rope.
It’s exciting to see that Tesla has begun to demo them – and it can only be so long until demo drives open up to everyone.
Advisor-led Demo
This Demo Drive is led by a Tesla Advisor – while you’re driving, the advisor will be in the passenger seat, walking you through the experience. They’ll explain steer-by-wire, off-road controls, and will introduce new-to-Tesla buyers to all the features that are currently available.
The list of locations so far for demo drives appears to be fairly limited, but we will hopefully see demo drives roll out throughout the United States, and eventually Canada too. Here is the current list of city/state locations that have seen demo drive invites.
Actually Smart Summon, the successor to Tesla’s Smart Summon feature, has been confirmed to be coming as soon as next month as per Elon Musk. Colloquially known as “ASS”, Actually Smart Summon is supposed to improve on the regular Smart Summon capabilities, which have historically used ultrasonic sensors (USS) to navigate parking lots.
We’re looking forward to Actually Smart Summon, and we’re quite excited about what other features will be unlocked once it finally shows up at our doorstep.
Vision-based Improvements
ASS is supposed to bring Smart Summon to vehicles that don’t have USS – using Tesla Vision. Most recently, Tesla has brought Autopark to vehicles without USS, and Vision-based Autopark has been a huge success. It is faster, more reliable, and smoother than the older USS-based solution. It can also park and maneuver in tighter locations.
Today, Smart Summon is sometimes useful at best, usually a party trick, or downright dangerous at worst. It’s excellent and best used in straight lines, where you have a clear line of sight of the vehicle, and can stop it if doesn’t see an obstacle.
I used Smart Summon today, just before writing this article – my 2022 Model Y (with USS) – did manage to show up just fine – in a straight-line location from where I was parked, after exiting the parking spot fairly cleanly. However, I’ve previously used Smart Summon and have had the vehicle turn towards obstacles, such as cart returns or curbs. Overall, it’s a sometimes-useful feature that has a lot of drawbacks right now.
Smart Summon is also restricted to a certain distance – and it's pretty small. The max distance is shorter than most parking lots, being only about 215 ft (65m). If you’re lucky enough to park close, it's very useful to bring your car right to you.
Actually Smart Summon
ASS will bring FSD V12-like capabilities to Smart Summon – the vehicle will primarily use Vision to drive toward you (or the location you’ve indicated). ASS has been supposed to be coming since about September 2022 and has seen many delays – we’re almost at the 2-year point today.
We’re looking forward to Actually Smart Summon being able to bring the vehicle – safely – right to you. ASS is also one of the key steps towards bringing some other cool features that Elon Musk has previously mentioned – Park Seek and Banish Autopark.
We’re also hopeful that Actually Smart Summon will increase the maximum range a vehicle can be summoned, because the current range is fairly small. Alongside Park Seek and Banish Autopark, we’re closing in on a Robotaxi-based future.
Park Seek and Banish Autopark
When the FSD v12.4 showed up, Elon also mentioned that going forward, vehicles would automatically park themselves when arriving in a parking lot – Park Seek – and that if you got out of the car at the entrance to a business, you could get it to automatically park itself in the parking lot – Banish Autopark. These are two features that are needed for Robotaxi to work – which itself is delayed to October 10th of this year. We’re looking quite forward to them – as in combination with Actually Smart Summon, Tesla has reached the cusp of vehicle autonomy.
A vehicle that arrives, driverless, at the location you’re at, then drives somewhere, parks itself there, and waits for you – is the definition of a Robotaxi.
While we’re likely to have to wait for Banish Autopark and Park Seek just a bit longer, Actually Smart Summon being around the corner is exciting! Gone will be the days of having to run out to your car when you forgot your umbrella – your car will just come right to you instead.
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