ELON MUSK AGAIN PROMISES SMART SUMMON AND BANISH COMING SOON
- Features like Smart Summon & Banish (Autopark) purportedly returning to Tesla products.
- Technology was phased out due to removal of ultrasonic sensors.
- Safety concerns raised over reliance on camera system for navigating complex situations.
If you've missed being able to send and receive your Tesla Model 3 at will, we have good news. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has promised the features will be returning to Tesla products soon, though no timeline was given. Responding to a post on X, Elon wrote that the Actual Smart Summon and Banish (Autopark) are on the way "soon," suggesting they might be in the final stages of development. But with no further detail, and past instances of promising exactly this but failing to meet self-imposed deadlines, one can't help but be skeptical.
Tesla
Tesla, Inc. is an American electric vehicle manufacturer largely attributed to driving the EV revolution. Through the Model S and subsequent products, Tesla has innovated and challenged industry conventions on numerous fronts, including over-the-air updates, self-driving technology, and automotive construction methods. Tesla is considered the world's most valuable car brand as of 2023, and the Model Y the world's best-selling car in the same year, but the brand's greatest achievement is arguably the Supercharger network of EV charging stations.
Old Technology, New Again
If you aren't aware, Tesla once offered you the ability to summon your vehicle to your location or park it in one of the most interesting and unnerving new automotive technology updates in decades. A wildly impressive trick, it was phased out when the company decided to do away with the ultrasonic sensors in its cars about two years ago in favor of simply relying on the Tesla Vision camera system.
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At the time, the company said the technology would return, and if the update does arrive soon, it would bode well for his other promises of technological innovation made recently. Given his past posts, it is believed that Smart Summon is being renamed Actual Smart Summon (it appears the acronym is intentionally childish) and Banish, with the latter potentially giving you the ability to send your car away to a parking space without giving it a second thought.
Criticisms Of Its Safety
While the idea of sending your Model X off into the distance once you get to the golf course is about as futuristic as it gets, there has been no shortage of well-versed critics who believe a camera system alone isn't advanced enough to be able to navigate complicated situations such as this. Most of the concern has been lobbed at the inappropriately named Full Self-Driving system, which suggests a capability that it cannot realistically and safely offer, but even features like this are a tough sell.
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Tesla's Q1 call brought promises of cheaper EVs, but probably not with the next-gen "unboxed" assembly line manufacturing process of the Robo Car.Additionally, renaming the system Actually Smart Summon or something of the like is practically admitting past iterations weren't smart, something that was somewhat obvious given they led to some expensive crashes in their time. We'll have to test out these new versions once they're rolled out to give our final verdict, but at the moment, it's intriguing that the promises from Musk are coming thick and fast despite his wide-ranging and repeated reductions in Tesla workforce coming equally quickly.
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