Tesla cars already have some basic autopilot functions that aid in navigating tight roads and making turns, but if you asked Elon Musk, that’s not enough. That’s why, for the past two years or so, Tesla has been working on a new supplementary feature to the autopilot called “smart summon.” Using the Tesla app on a smartphone, a car can be called to a user’s location from far away. Utilizing a hybrid of pathfinding and GPS technology, the car can safely navigate itself to just about anywhere for a pick-up. Or, well, anywhere there’s a cell signal, anyway.
Not only can a car be called to the driver, but when the driver has line-of-sight with the car, the app can be used again to engage a manual remote control. With controls on the phone, the car can be directly moved and parked, though it’s also aided in that process by its existing pathfinding capabilities. According to Elon Musk, this function could even be used to, in his own words, have your car “follow you like a pet.”
With the recent deployment of Tesla’s new neural net, Musk hopes that the smart summon feature will be ready and available for all Tesla owners within the next six weeks.
