Summon Why ?

[ChadFeldheimer]

I backed into a spot with a tallish concrete parking stop today. I couldn't tell if it was going to clear the rear bumper.

I stopped short, got out, and snugged up to the parking stop with the fob. Convenient!

 

[Marcboy]

That is awesome! Did you back out of the rut or go forward?

back out. we we were both pushing from the front.

 

[GoTslaGo]

So, I got the best answer to my own question this afternoon.

I was stuck in the snow (rwd), could not move the car. A guy tried to help me, but it was still not moving. No one else around, I got out of the car, and started pushing also, while summoning the car to back up.

And it worked !!!!!!

Thanks Elon

That's cool!

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

The other thing I'm puzzled by is why does the car need to listen to music when it's summoned? Sure I need music when I sit my weighty butt down on the seat, but I'm not there. What kind of benefit does it give the car?

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back out. we we were both pushing from the front.

I think it's majorly awesome that the summon still works even with tire slippage.

 

[2krazykats]

I used it successfully for the first time today to pull it out of the garage so I could wash it and I liked not having to get in the car to back it up. Unfortunately summon wouldn't work to drive it back in because it had gotten itself too close to the right spot and detected an obstacle. Had to get in to park it in the garage. Would've been lovely if I didn't have to get in at all in that case. Saves on the door, seat, wheel, and driver carpet area from wearing more, albeit slightly.

 

[Darthamerica]

There is an extremely tight parking stall next to EV charging spaces at work that would not allow me to get out of the car without risking a door ding against a concrete wall. I have used summon several times to park in this space. It's extremely useful and otherwise I'd have to park far away.

 

[sorka]

I am puzzled to find valid scenario for which I would want to summon the car, what are your guys' scenarios where you find this useful ?

I get that it is very cool, no question about that but

If I park in the driveway, then I don't see the point. I guess I may want to move the car to the garage at night. But since it requires me to be aligned with the garage and be physically present, it has a lot of pre requisites.

If I park in my garage, then I am in the car already, since it can only handle straight parking, I can do it myself. I really can, and with les steps, just as safe.


My only scenario (being a dad of 3, is that in a cramped garage, I might want to get the car out before getting in to prevent banging the doors on bikes and such.

Thoughts ?

I came out of pizza place the other day. I was only in there for a few minutes which is why I risked parking the car in the only available tight spot. There was no room to open the door. I pulled into the spot about a 3rd of the way, got out, and then summoned the car the rest of the way. There was NO way to open the door. The spot was just too tight.

I came out about 4 minutes later. Same cars parked next to me. Used summons to back the car out. There were a bunch of people sitting on patio area having lunch outside one of the restaurants. I noticed several looking and pointing as I summoned the car into the spot. When I came out, EVERYONE was looking at me summon the car out of the spot. One guy asked another guy as they exited one of the doors "can you Tesla do that?" and the reply was a mumbled something like "I need auto pilot for that" Is that true btw?

 

[2krazykats]

I came out of pizza place the other day. I was only in there for a few minutes which is why I risked parking the car in the only available tight spot. There was no room to open the door. I pulled into the spot about a 3rd of the way, got out, and then summoned the car the rest of the way. There was NO way to open the door. The spot was just too tight.

I came out about 4 minutes later. Same cars parked next to me. Used summons to back the car out. There were a bunch of people sitting on patio area having lunch outside one of the restaurants. I noticed several looking and pointing as I summoned the car into the spot. When I came out, EVERYONE was looking at me summon the car out of the spot. One guy asked another guy as they exited one of the doors "can you Tesla do that?" and the reply was a mumbled something like "I need auto pilot for that" Is that true btw?

Yes, summon only works with autopilot HW which is probably why there's a glut of older Teslas on the market from people upgrading!

Used summon 3 times today! Once as noted above in backing out of the garage and then we went to a restaurant where a spot we wanted to park in had a little wet mud around where i and the passengers would have had to step in. Used summon to back it in and summon to pull out so we didn't get our shoes and the Tesla carpet dirty. Now I'm liking the usefulness of it!

 

[FlyingJat]

Blew out my knee, tore 3 ligaments. In order to get out of any vehicle - have to open the door fully. Nice to be able to do that in any parking lot and summon the car back into the slot or our of it.

 

[sorka]

The other thing I'm puzzled by is why does the car need to listen to music when it's summoned? Sure I need music when I sit my weighty butt down on the seat, but I'm not there. What kind of benefit does it give the car?

I thought that was obvious. Each MS with summons comes with a mini Stig that does the actual summons driving.

 

[2krazykats]

I thought that was obvious. Each MS with summons comes with a mini Stig that does the actual summons driving.

HA!

 

[Max*]

Found a use for it!

Usually park in the far end of the parking lot, but due to the snow, all my favorite spaces were taken. Parked next to the shopping cart return thingy, and pulled right next to it, so that the driver to my right wouldn't ding my door. Backed out, got out of the car, and summoned it into the spot. Came back after shopping, and summoned the car out of the spot got in, and drove away.

Sure, I could have done things differently, but I wanted to find a use for summon, lol (I could've backed into the space, instead of nosed in)

 

[Soolim]

When will voice command for summoning be here?:wink:
Hello Buddy come get me. Buddy move and stop with the driver's door on my side.

 

[tmoz]

I'll be using it if I'm in a situation in the parking lot where other cars are really close to mine and I'm too fat to squeeze in safely.

I surely wouldn't do that - what if the other people want to get in their cars before you come back? Door dings everywhere.

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If 7.1's Summon is a baby step, then I'm interested in what comes after the baby step. The 7.1 Summon? Not so much.

Elon clearly believes what comes after the baby step is autonomous, unmanned driving: your car is "summoned" from one place to another, perhaps down the road, or across the country.

Okay, but here's my thing: if EVER there were compelling reason to add more cameras and full-time video recording to the car, it'd be between now and the more compelling, ambitious version of Summon that is to come. The car desperately needs a black box, with fulltime 4-sided HD video running, not only for security when the car's unattended, but especially while it's driving.

We've seen countless topics in this forum about accidents and security incidents where cameras came in handy. Tesla should be building this into the car as a standard feature: cameras built seamlessly into the surface of the left and right sides of the car (we can debate ideal placement). They've already got cameras in facing front and back. So add a terabyte or three of storage somewhere deep in the car, and a password-protected way over wifi to pull down or interactively access the video as needed (including from the Tesla smartphone app).

If and when Tesla comes out with such a feature will be the time I just might have to turn in my ancient, clunker 2013 Model S for a new version.

I hope I will be able to pay money to have extra sensors put on my car when the time comes.

Largely, I think it's just about the name and having it on your phone.

There is just something really cool about SUMMON even if the hardware simply isn't there to support anything other than going forwards and backwards.

I can definitely see it being useful for someone with a very specific use case. Like parking it into a garage that's really too small for the car. That's probably the most common one.

Will I use it? Most definitely in the following scenario's.

1.) When I realize I screwed up and parked too far one way. Controlling the car remotely makes it look like I meant to do that.

2.) When someone parks way too close for comfort. Why squish in when you can just have it back out a bit?

3.) When I want to play me vs. the computer. I'm getting the feeling it does a better job of parking in my garage than I do. I can't let this be. I have to beat it. It seems pretty exact in the tires to wall alignment measurement.

4.) When it's a little tight for comfort. Hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I say this as not being the type to ever park really close to someone. But, we have to accept we have a big car and there are places that just don't give us much room. Sometimes you just gotta get out of the spaceship and look.

5.) When I have to open my cabinet in front of the Tesla to get some tool out. Pretty easy just to have it backup a few ft.

6.) Making youtube videos. DUH!!

Agreed! but, number 7) To "wow" people who don't have a Model S. Most people know that it is less useful in real life than it sounds, but everyone agrees that it is really cool and a foreshadowing of things to come.

 

[supratachophobia]

I am puzzled to find valid scenario for which I would want to summon the car, what are your guys' scenarios where you find this useful ?

I get that it is very cool, no question about that but

If I park in the driveway, then I don't see the point. I guess I may want to move the car to the garage at night. But since it requires me to be aligned with the garage and be physically present, it has a lot of pre requisites.

If I park in my garage, then I am in the car already, since it can only handle straight parking, I can do it myself. I really can, and with les steps, just as safe.


My only scenario (being a dad of 3, is that in a cramped garage, I might want to get the car out before getting in to prevent banging the doors on bikes and such.

Thoughts ?

I guess when I first hear of the summon feature over a year ago, I imagined coming out of a mall with a couple large bags and being able to press a button and have the car (from somewhere way out in the parking lot) pull out of it's spot, navigate down the isles, and then pull up to the curb to pick you up. Logically, that would be the most useful to me anyway. The garage thing I sort of understand, but then you have the charging cable to contend with. As for the narrow parking space argument, I find that to be complete horse poo. There is no way in hell I'm going to wedge my Model S in between two cars that belong to complete strangers just so they can come out, rub their metal zippered coats along the side of my car, scratching it all the way. Then when they get to their door, whip it open and put a good old dent in the aluminum of my car. That's just plain stupid.

So if the end result on current hardware is to perform the first function (I understand the private property thing), even by getting property owners permission to use the summon feature, then I would consider the promise of the feature fulfilled both by the letter and the spirit of what Elon told us.

 

[hockeythug]

Baby steps. Think long term.

 

[supratachophobia]

Baby steps. Think long term.

Think plateau with current hardware therefore falling short of expectations.

 

[Fluke]

I used summon today after washing my car. I was putting tire dressing on and used it to move the car to reposition the tires so I could get the dressing on the bottom part of the tires that were compressed by the weight of the car in the original spot. OK, so I'm just lazy, but it worked nicely since it moves slowly and I could easily see where to stop the car to get to the spot that was previously not accessible.

 

[W0QR]

I'll tell you why..

Mine has come in handy many times already.
First was when snow plows boxed me in and I could not get the drivers side door open. I could have gone in through the trunk or the passenger side but that was treacherous. Backed it out 20 feet and that did it!

Second, parking in a parking lot and some AH pulls up his dirty old truck right next to my S. Backed it out no problem. Maybe a foot to spare on each side.

Third, parked in a stall after a snowfall the previous day. Snow melted and I came out to find the car in a pool of water! Backed it about 5 feet and got in DRY.

Fourth, and I use this all the time..I have a garage not connected to the house. I can summon the car and do not have to open the garage door..it opens it AND closes it when it's out. I use this 100 percent of the time. And since I started doing that I haven't forgotten to close the garage door!

No, it IS a big deal.

 

[Brass Guy]

@W0QR, when do you plug it in?