Finicky Summon...

[chracatoa]

So I'm doing the EAP trial and the feature I like the most is summon because I park two cars in my garage, and it's tight. I often have to play tetris in the morning to get to my model 3.

But lo and behold, the trial came. Now I can pull my car out without having to move my wife's car. Awesome, right?

It worked perfectly for three days. But now, it works sometimes, and other times it just refuses to move. It lights up, does a few noises, and goes away. This morning I couldn't move it at all. So I spent 5 minutes trying it while I could just hop into my wife's car and move it in a minute or so.

The WiFi router is right on top of the car, and both the phone and the car are on WiFi. I tried to turn the wifi off for the phone, and it made it worse. Couldn't connect to the car anymore even after I turned the wifi back on.

So what's going on here? Do I have to draw a pentagram or something so the Model 3 will do my bidding?

 

[Abstrakt1]

If it doesn't move it means it isn't comfortable with the amount of space it has to maneuver. I find it is mostly in the angle it is parked at, if it isn't straight it senses the walls in my garage as being behind it or something

 

[azred]

I’m also on the trial and have made similar observations to those of OP. Sometimes it takes a couple tries to get the car to move, even when it is sitting by itself on the driveway. I think we need to hope Musk is telling the truth when he says the cameras will soon take over for the sensors and be a huge upgrade.

When my S was out of the two car garage, Summon pulled my 3 into the middle of the garage even though it was parked outside directly in front of its correct spot in the garage. Musk said it soon will follow you like a pet but it would be weird to have to lead it into its spot like walking the family dog! I would hope we can tape or paint lines for the cameras to read.

Most people probably see Summon as a minor benefit of EAP but since I have my golf cart parked sideways in front of the 3 and room behind is limited, it may save me a minor collision someday as well as prevent a scrape of the garage doorframe on the passenger side.

I may be the one Tesla customer who is actually more enticed by the potential for Summon than the main features of EAP.

 

[Canikony]

Apparently my driveway is too steep for summon to work if I want to pull my car into the garage.

 

[chracatoa]

I wish we had a "go-slow-and-straight-and-trust-me mode." I usually have the car correctly aligned and the car decides to turn here and there.

 

[RSL2020]

Apparently my driveway is too steep for summon to work if I want to pull my car into the garage.

Well you just solved my problem. Ours isn't that steep but I bet that's the problem.

 

[Need]

If you are using your phone to summon, try to find a fix location outside of your garage with clear view to the sky. Unlike keyfob summon (which is not possible with M3 yet), phone summon needs the GPS location of both the phone and the car. The car has a strong GPS receiver that it should be easily locate itself even inside your covered garage. Most phones have weak gps receivers that does not work all the time indoor. Time of day and location matters too because sometime your phone will be able to see more GPS satellites in the sky and sometime less.

When we first got our MX, my wife would summon the car out of the garage from inside the garage. Sometime it would work but sometime not. She has to switch to summon from just outside the garage to the side of the path which mostly work. But then we switched to using the keyfob which works 100% of the time.

And to the others, yeah you can't start a summon on a driveway slope. It has to be mostly level and also it may not go over a garage threshold if it is not leveled.

 

[Glamisduner]

OP, I had the same issues with it you are describing. Summon only seems to work when it isn't useful.

 

[Abstrakt1]

I wish we had a "go-slow-and-straight-and-trust-me mode." I usually have the car correctly aligned and the car decides to turn here and there.

I agree. It usually finds a way to park it weird no matter how simple it should be. The other day I tried to pull it into a parking spot just showing it to a friend. All it had to do was pull forward and it somehow wiggled it's way up on to the curb and then wouldn't summon anymore so that I could back it out and try again. Ended up just parking it myself.

 

[Canikony]

Well you just solved my problem. Ours isn't that steep but I bet that's the problem.

Yeah, my driveway isn't that steep either, but I guess steep enough. I guess to confirm this theory, go to a parking lot and see how well it works.

I was able to get it to work if I pulled the front wheels into the garage myself, getting out, and then using summon. This was just play around with it while I'm on the trial because it is insanely impractical to use it this way lol.