Tesla Has Fixed Its Automatic Parking Feature

Last month Tesla released a new automatic parking feature for the Model X and Model S called “Summon,” the feature enables owners to park their car or pull it out of a parking spot with just one click of a button. They don’t actually need to be in the car to park it or literally summon it. Consumer Reports tested the feature and found that it had a couple of issues, the issues have now been fixed by Tesla.

Tesla says that Summon is going to improve road safety since the car’s sensors are going to detect obstacles in its path when it’s pulling in or out of a parking spot. It’s also convenient for owners since they can park their car in a tight spot where they might not be able to open the door to get out of the car.

When Consumer Reports tested the feature it found that the sensors had blind spots which missed objects that were narrow or positioned low to the ground. The test car struck a duffel bag and a bicycle.

There isn’t much cause for concern though since Summon can only be used when the owner is within 10 feet of the car and even then the car pulls in or out of the parking spot at a very low speed. So blind spots shouldn’t be that much of a concern since the owner will have ample time to see and react if there was an obstacle in the way that the car’s sensors didn’t pick up.

However there was one flaw in the feature. Summon could be used via the key fob and it wasn’t required to constantly keep the button on the fob or in the app pressed to keep the car moving. So Tesla has fixed this by limiting Summon to the mobile app and users will now have to keep their finger on the button to engage this feature. They will not be able to summon the car using the key fob now.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Transportation
Tags: model s, model x, Tesla