See How A Tesla Model 3 Automatically Picks Up A Driver In A Parking Lot

Harin - May 11, 2019

Tesla is developing a new version of its Summon feature enabling its vehicles to autonomously navigate parking lots and pick up their owners on request.

Back in Jan 2016, electric cars maker Tesla introduced an Autopilot update which contained what Elon Mush, the company’s CEO, considered as the “first baby step in Tesla Summon capability.”

With this release, owners of Tesla vehicles could command their cars to pull in and out of parking lot or garage automatically with just one button. But it was not possible for the car to many turns.

At the end of 2018, Musk started posting some sneak peeks on Summon’s major update which was later rolled out in March. Enhanced Summon’s newly released video demonstrates how much autonomous tech has developed in three years.

The video shows a parking lot where a Tesla Model 3 owner using Enhanced Summon feature to instruct his car to pick him up. After the command, the car slowly backs out of its parking spot and then navigates through other cars to reach its owner.

In the company’s release notes, Summon is described as:

The updated “Summon” tab will show up once you have installed the update in your car as well as your mobile app. In the new “Summon” tab, besides the usual “Reverse” and “Forward” actions, there is a new “Enhanced Summon” feature.

Tesla-Summon-Feature — In the new “Summon” tab, besides the usual “Reverse” and “Forward” actions, there is a new “Enhanced Summon” feature.

These features of Tesla only work when your pin location is only 150 feet or below away from the car.

So even though, it might not be possible for Tesla’s lineup of autonomous cars to go from coast to coast, this video clearly shows that they can navigate through a parking lot successfully on their own, which is an impressive step in the path to becoming fully autonomous.