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Summon Your Tesla from Your Phone

148 points| nbaksalyar | 10 years ago |teslamotors.com | reply

139 comments

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[+] aresant|10 years ago|reply
"Summon"

Great word - evokes both magic and privilege in one fell swoop.

They just nail the language in their communications.

[+] FullyFunctional|10 years ago|reply
"Eventually, your Tesla will be able to drive anywhere across the country to meet you, charging itself along the way."

In there lies perhaps a hint at a business opportunity/solution to the renter problem: Tesla charging garages and comes to pick you up when you are ready to go.

We certainly live in a Sci-fi movie.

[+] jonathankoren|10 years ago|reply
What I want is my car to go park it self on the street. And then come back and pick me up. Parking is the main reason I hate driving in San Francisco.

Turning the car in to an Uber doesn't work for me. I don't want someone spilling something all over the seats.

[+] icc97|10 years ago|reply
You could just tell it to drive around the block a few times even if there isn't a parking space.
[+] startupfounder|10 years ago|reply
This is the Uber/Lyft/Taxi killer.

Imagine paying $2-4 for a ride in a Tesla for what used to cost you $25-$30 in an Uber or cab.

97% of the cost of an Uber ride goes towards paying the driver, fuel and Uber fees, 3% (or less) goes towards the lease costs.

A Tesla lease is only ~$0.73/hour ($~12,000/yr), including recharging.

[+] VikingCoder|10 years ago|reply
I'm sure many of you also dreamed of being Michael Knight, summoning KITT with his watch.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BxHbwy5CMAAk8eA.jpg

If you're looking for a cool novel with self-driving vehicles featured prominently in it, I highly recommend "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez. It's a techno-thriller written by an actual software security expert, where a computer virus takes over the world. Everyone I've recommended it to has enjoyed it. (EDITED for clarity.)

[+] TY|10 years ago|reply
"Daemon" and its sequel "Freedom TM" were awesome, totally support the recommendation. Small nitpick, the software that took over the world (a form on narrow AI, think scripting on steroids) was developed by a genius game developer (in my head looking totally like John Carmack) not a security expert.
[+] ohitsdom|10 years ago|reply
This use case seems very strange. Why would I want to get out in my driveway when it's more convenient to park it myself in my garage? I'm covered by any rain, and my front door is locked (whereas the door from my garage into my house is usually unlocked).
[+] mcpherrinm|10 years ago|reply
If you have a big garage that allows you plenty of space to exit your vehicle, then this doesn't make sense. This feature is not for you.

My parking spot is a narrow spot in a covered carport. It's uncomfortable to exit the vehicle when you're in the spot, without risking bumping the door into the next car over.

The shared garage at my workplace is similar.

My brother's home has a parking spot so narrow that you can't exit from the driver's side in an SUV due to a wall, so you have to climb out the passenger side.

My parent's house has a garage used for storage, so there's lots of stuff piled around the car. And there's no direct entrance to the house (except via a ladder up to a hatch).

All of these use-cases would be easier to park if you could get out of the car, and have it pull in and out (drive straight by the length of the vehicle) automatically. It's basically driven by the fact that the space needed to store a car is much smaller than the space needed to store a car with a door open.

This is one of the best features I could ask for in a car, for me.

[+] prawn|10 years ago|reply
It's an early step towards more:

Your car has dropped you at work and returned home to avoid CBD parking fees. You then summon it to pick you up and drive you home.

You've arrived back from holiday and summon your car to the airport to pick you and the family up.

You are parking your car(s) in the garage so tightly that you can no longer open the doors while inside.

The car is parked a few blocks away and you want it to come and get you from the restaurant where you've just finished dining.

[+] xutopia|10 years ago|reply
Two reasons why this works. Some of us have packed garages that we use as storage. A car that parks itself gives us more room. Secondly it's on private property and it allows people to get comfortable with self driving cars without the hassle of legal issues we'd have on the road. They're playing a long game.
[+] sandworm101|10 years ago|reply
Have any of these cars ever gotten stuck? Accidents are one thing, but has a car ever been able to traverse a great distance (10+km of public roads) with the 99.9999% reliability such a product would require?

You call the car. It leaves the garage and starts heading to you. Then something comes up, something like a construction zone or other odd situation. Or perhaps the car breaks down. So the car is now stopped and alone. You're sitting by the road five miles away and the car is parked blocking traffic somewhere. Who comes to help? AAA? Wil it fight back if someone tries to tow it away? Or push it onto the shoulder to free up the lane? I doubt the general public would have much sympathy for the guy who's tesla is blocking an intersection because he didn't want to pay for parking and/or bother walking to the car himself.

I cannot see drivers using this garage/parking trick very often. It's just too slow.

[+] squeaky-clean|10 years ago|reply
Reading the article, it sounds like the car isn't expected to travel more than 10 meters or so right now.

>Using Summon, once you arrive home and exit Model S or Model X, you can prompt it to do the rest: open your garage door, enter your garage, park itself, and shut down. In the morning, you wake up, walk out the front door, and summon your car. It will open the garage door and come to greet you

So from your garage to the street, or from a parking spot to out of, but adjacent to, the parking spot. Not from your home to your workplace.

[+] sremani|10 years ago|reply
As much as I love TSLA, they always time their announcements a bit cynically. Summon is great and awesome, but as a task itself is a very niche utility unless it can park itself lets say in malls or in public spaces. The real story is they want to be in News cycle esp. with Detroit Auto Show going on now and more and more mainstream Automakers getting the plugin religion.

The bigger news is the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica PHEV, which is more of a game changer from impact perspective.

edit: Also who is going to plugin the Car, if it self-parks?

[+] ju-st|10 years ago|reply
Yeah, Tesla is _really_ good at marketing/PR. Also: Calling it just "Summon" and not "SmartUnparkAssist(TM)" or similar
[+] woah|10 years ago|reply
Tesla is developing a snake like robot arm that creepily slithers into the charging port.
[+] guiomie|10 years ago|reply
How is a hybrid minivan (2017 Chrysler Pacifica) more exciting than a step forward toward self driving cars? I guess it is a matter of opinion...
[+] Someone1234|10 years ago|reply
Can I ask why the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica PHEV is a game changer?

PS - This is a legitimate question, I know nothing about the Pacifica.

[+] jetskindo|10 years ago|reply
When you miss a payment, the car will go back to motherbase.
[+] creativityhurts|10 years ago|reply
And then you can just summon it by paying from your phone.
[+] ck2|10 years ago|reply
Very, very slowly. https://youtu.be/9yqDWVLx35I

And note how of course the car cannot anticipate the lip of the garage needing slightly more momentum to overcome like a human driver would.

But it is a start and I'd buy a Model X in a heartbeat if I won the powerball, lol

[+] stcredzero|10 years ago|reply
And note how of course the car cannot anticipate the lip of the garage needing slightly more momentum to overcome like a human driver would.

Terrain scanning, a software upgrade, and the instant torque available to electric motors could probably solve that.

[+] jdbernard|10 years ago|reply
I doubt the lip of the garage will be a permanent limitation. There is no reason the car can't learn to account for it.
[+] adanto6840|10 years ago|reply
This is really cool, and is obviously intended to be just the beginning of something that could be really amazing.

I suppose this is mostly just Tesla wanting to "beta" test the technology & collect some data to work with for future optimization...

I just don't see the practicality in this specific functionality that they're rolling out -- sure, it's neat, and I'm sure many of us would love to show it off to our friends for the wow factor.

But right now, you pull in the driveway, and tell your Tesla to park in the garage. It opens the garage & parks. Now what? You've got to follow the car into the garage & plug it in to your wall-attached charging cord.

Same thing when you leave the next day -- you've got to unplug the cord before you summon it to the driveway ~20 feet away...

Neat for sure, though. ;-)

[+] maratd|10 years ago|reply
> I just don't see the practicality in this specific functionality that they're rolling out

Not all of us live in mansions. My garage will barely fit the S or X. Not having to squeeze in there and get into the car in the driveway is a huge win.

[+] Killswitch|10 years ago|reply
The article states that it will soon be able to come pick you up from long distances and even stop and charge itself. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have to do that stuff.
[+] doughj3|10 years ago|reply
Is this the first car that will now drive itself, however small a distance, without anyone sitting in the driver's seat?
[+] kornish|10 years ago|reply
Well, via software. There have certainly been remote-controlled cars in the past.
[+] strange_quark|10 years ago|reply
No. I believe the new 7 series does the same thing.
[+] e40|10 years ago|reply
What's what the OP says.
[+] tbabb|10 years ago|reply
I wonder how city congestion will be affected by thousands of empty cars driving around a few years from now.
[+] dntrkv|10 years ago|reply
It would actually reduce congestion. When I had a car here in SF, in many cases, I spent more time driving around looking for parking than actually driving to and from my destination. This would prevent that since the car could drop you off and head back home or to a nearby area with more readily available parking.

Take this idea to the next level, and you can have services like Uber that are run completely by algorithm. These cars can be parked all around the city and as soon as someone requests an Uber, the car wakes up and picks the customer up, after dropoff it finds the most efficient place to repark itself and wait for the next customer. This would significantly reduce congestion in big cities.

[+] gotothrowaway|10 years ago|reply
I wonder how long before New York City walkers realize they can safely cross in front of Teslas without worrying about getting hit.
[+] ptio|10 years ago|reply
A self-driving Uber-style limo/rideshare service might make sense and may result into less cars overall.
[+] prawn|10 years ago|reply
I've read estimates that 30% of city traffic is made up of people looking for a parking spot close to their destination.
[+] joeyspn|10 years ago|reply
Really cool, but it's worrying the increasing capabilities that bad actors will have at their disposal if they get access to your mobile device... Why not use a single purpose device instead of a phone for this?
[+] troycarlson|10 years ago|reply
1. I don't want a single purpose device for every connected device I own.

2. I don't want my phone to be the single point of failure for every connected device I own.

Both alternatives get worse as you connect more devices. Somebody will need to think of a high-level solution to this problem (most likely Apple) for more granular access control of connected devices from your phone.

[+] jtymes|10 years ago|reply
I could see having multiple single-use devices becoming a problem though too, and it doesn't seem to solve the "access" problem; the single purpose device could have its own vulnerabilities (hardware or software), so it just moves the target from one device to another, while (admittedly) limiting its scope of impact.

I'm also not sure the market would like it either, considering that the smartphone has wholly replaced many single-purpose devices (camera, GPS, calculator, etc.). The convenience factor may outweigh the security factor for many.

[+] stcredzero|10 years ago|reply
Just the ability to have it pull out or back into tight parking spaces is worthy all by itself.
[+] an4rchy|10 years ago|reply
If/When Tesla achieves a full self-driving car, I feel like the Uber's of the world would go bankrupt (perhaps a little drastic). Tesla can just as easily cut out the middleman and create the complete experience.
[+] OopsCriticality|10 years ago|reply
Can anyone speak to the limitations for the tight spot the car will park into? Could there be a situation where the spot is tight enough that you can't get into the driver's seat?