Now, I realise the original idea (and the long term objective) of Summon is to have your car join you from across the continental US - but we're not there yet. I also recall reading of a Model S owner demonstrating his ability to control his vehicle (parked in the UK) from his mobile phone (in Australia) with the first version of the software (limited to forwards/ backwards 39 feet, of course).
However, due to safety concerns the current version of the Summon function we get on our smartphone app is limited to only work within range of the fob ... so why is it still dependent on a 3G internet connection?
Not sure about you but I find my car 3G connection can be somewhat patchy - particularly (say) when embedded deep in the bowels of a multistorey carpark. My phone connection holds up a bit better but can be vulnerable to drops in signal. Summon won't work under these circumstances (and if your car is wedged in, deep in the bowels of a multistory, it would be terribly helpful if it worked)
So I have the paradox of standing next to my car, in fob range, getting the "cannot connect to your vehicle" message on my phone - whilst music plays from the speakers in the car, streamed from that very same phone via bluetooth.
If the app used bluetooth to communicate with the car, it would improve connectivity, reduce the likelihood of noncommunication with the vehicle, reduce any latency in the circuit and end the problem of the manoeuvre aborting halfway due to loss of communication.
Sure, it won't work from across the continental US (or from Australia). But it will work more reliably when you are standing right next to the car and trying to show the function off to friends (connection loss at this point is really embarrassing)
I'm sure there is a security concern here somewhere that is fixed by the control signal going to/from the car via 3G and Tesla's central servers. I doubt it's beyond the wit of man to fix that...
However, due to safety concerns the current version of the Summon function we get on our smartphone app is limited to only work within range of the fob ... so why is it still dependent on a 3G internet connection?
Not sure about you but I find my car 3G connection can be somewhat patchy - particularly (say) when embedded deep in the bowels of a multistorey carpark. My phone connection holds up a bit better but can be vulnerable to drops in signal. Summon won't work under these circumstances (and if your car is wedged in, deep in the bowels of a multistory, it would be terribly helpful if it worked)
So I have the paradox of standing next to my car, in fob range, getting the "cannot connect to your vehicle" message on my phone - whilst music plays from the speakers in the car, streamed from that very same phone via bluetooth.
If the app used bluetooth to communicate with the car, it would improve connectivity, reduce the likelihood of noncommunication with the vehicle, reduce any latency in the circuit and end the problem of the manoeuvre aborting halfway due to loss of communication.
Sure, it won't work from across the continental US (or from Australia). But it will work more reliably when you are standing right next to the car and trying to show the function off to friends (connection loss at this point is really embarrassing)
I'm sure there is a security concern here somewhere that is fixed by the control signal going to/from the car via 3G and Tesla's central servers. I doubt it's beyond the wit of man to fix that...
