Tesla’s Summon feature, which enables moving the car remotely on short distances without anyone inside the vehicle, saved an owner who got locked out of a parking garage.
“Summon” is a feature within Tesla’s Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” system.
Originally, it was used by owners to move their cars autonomously for a few feet in their driveway or in tight parking situations.
Tesla latest released a new version called “Smart Summon” (since renamed just “Summon”). The new version enables owners to “summon” their Tesla vehicles from further away, and the cars will navigate more complex parking environments.
The idea is that Tesla would eventually have “Summon” and “Reverse Summon.” When going to a parking lot, you could get out in front of a store, for example, and send your car to find a parking spot. When you come out, you can summon the car back to you.
But like the rest of Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” system, it’s not quite there yet.
The feature has yet to prove truly useful other than in some specific niche situations. For example, we have noted that it can be really useful for wheelchair users.
Now we get a very interesting new example of Tesla’s Summon feature proving useful.
Tesla Model 3 owner Jacky Heshi parked his car in a parking garage in Vancouver. When coming back to pick it up, he realized that he made a mistake and that the parking lot closes at 10 p.m. after which time you can’t access the lot.
Thinking on his feet, he decided to give Summon a shot and see if it could drive to gate.
The Model 3 actually managed to drive to the gate, which automatically opened – giving him access to the vehicle.
He posted a video of the whole ordeal:
You can hear their genuine excitement when it actually worked. Of course, the feature is not quite at a level that it is super useful to most owners yet, but we really can’t say that it is useless. It definitely saved Jacky and his friends from a bad end to their night.