You Can Summon Your Tesla Out of a Parking Spot

[brucet999]

Just three conditions need to exist for it to work.

1. 7.1 installed and Summon enabled
2. Phone and fob need to be close together
3. You need to be 10' from your car

This last point still needs to be tested if you can be farther.

I have had it work from 20'.

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I discovered yesterday that if I ran summon in one direction and stopped the car short of its inherent distance limit, then summoned again without having entered the car, it traveled back to the original starting point and then stopped itself.

 

[LetsGoFast]

Did you notice as well that the car won't auto present door handles after it stops in "Summon" mode? In fact, I have had to push the door handle twice to get it to present.

Yes, I've noticed that as well. I think it's because your fob was already in range and it is only triggered by walking up with the fob.

 

[RMan]

Just three conditions need to exist for it to work.

1. 7.1 installed and Summon enabled
2. Phone and fob need to be close together
3. You need to be 10' from your car

This last point still needs to be tested if you can be farther.

While it is intuitively obvious, there is a fourth condition for Summon to work with your phone. The charger cannot be connected to the car. When the charger is attached to the car the summon commands will not appear on the iPhone.

 

[msnow]

I have had it work from 20'.

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I discovered yesterday that if I ran summon in one direction and stopped the car short of its inherent distance limit, then summoned again without having entered the car, it traveled back to the original starting point and then stopped itself.

I've got to work at 25' through a door!

I tried what you did (stopping summon while backing out) but it did not return to its original location so, for me, it's inconsistent in that respect.

 

[mspohr]

As to the requirement for level ground, Max backed out of my garage, down a driveway that slopes 10" in 20 feet and stopped with rear wheels off the approach apron at the curb and onto the street gutter.

My driveway also has a similar slope and summon works. It stops when it gets to the snow bank on the side of the driveway. Also works to park in the garage up the slope.

 

[ecarfan]

A friend of mine has an approximately 15 ft. driveway that drops almost 3 ft. from the edge of the garage floor to the sidewalk. Using Summon he can back his car out of his garage so that the rear of the car is at the edge of the sidewalk. But Summon will not activate when he tries to use it to move the car into the garage.
It appears to me that if the car is asked to start moving when it is on a slope Summon won't work. But Summon will work if the car starts level and then moves to to a location where it is stopped on a slope.

 

[Patrick W]

Did it work?

I did not try it then as I could not see the car from where I was sitting.

However the next night I was sitting in the outdoor area of a restaurant where I could see just the front of the car parked across the street mostly behind a building. Measuring on Google Earth the distance was 55 meters (~180').

With the fob in my pocket I opened the Tesla app on the iPhone and was surprised when the Summon button appeared. Feeling a bit more bold this time I pressed the summon button and was very surprised to see the options to move forward or backward.

Quickly shut off the app. Shortly thereafter i received a notification that Summon had been aborted.

So apparently one can be pretty far away from the car and still have Summon work.

 

[msnow]

I did not try it then as I could not see the car from where I was sitting.

However the next night I was sitting in the outdoor area of a restaurant where I could see just the front of the car parked across the street mostly behind a building. Measuring on Google Earth the distance was 55 meters (~180').

With the fob in my pocket I opened the Tesla app on the iPhone and was surprised when the Summon button appeared. Feeling a bit more bold this time I pressed the summon button and was very surprised to see the options to move forward or backward.

Quickly shut off the app. Shortly thereafter i received a notification that Summon had been aborted.

So apparently one can be pretty far away from the car and still have Summon work.

You could have set a world record!

 

[Patrick W]

You could have set a world record!

Turns out not. I set up an experiment this evening with the car in the middle of an otherwise empty car park.

Then walked 25 meters away and opened the Tesla app. As before the Summon button appeared and when I pressed it the Forward and Reverse buttons appeared.

I pushed the Forward button and...nothing happened.

Eventually I got a message saying the fob was out of range. So no go.

We shouldn't be surprise, I suppose. The folks at Tesla have to anticipate owners doing dumb stuff so make the system as idiot resistant as possible.

 

[garygid]

When one can summon the autonomous driving car from home, to have it drive
from work to home, will one also be able to send the car back, or to scbool to
pick up the kids, and have it come home again?

Clearly there would be a lot of great uses for the "future" car, even without
automatic fueling, but we are still a long way from reliable unattended driving.

 

[brucet999]

When one can summon the autonomous driving car from home, to have it drive
from work to home, will one also be able to send the car back, or to scbool to
pick up the kids, and have it come home again?

Clearly there would be a lot of great uses for the "future" car, even without
automatic fueling, but we are still a long way from reliable unattended driving.

I particularly like your example of a driverless Tesla picking kids up at school. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[GlmnAlyAirCar]

You could have set a world record!

I was able to summon from my office with the fob, about 80' above the parking lot and 150' laterally. Of course I could see the car and the lot was empty; otherwise I wouldn't have tried it. But there doesn't appear to be any inherent 10' limit to use the fob.

 

[msnow]

I was able to summon from my office with the fob, about 80' above the parking lot and 150' laterally. Of course I could see the car and the lot was empty; otherwise I wouldn't have tried it. But there doesn't appear to be any inherent 10' limit to use the fob.

Can you shoot a video of that car moving a few feet? That would be incredible.

 

[GlmnAlyAirCar]

Can you shoot a video of that car moving a few feet? That would be incredible.

Try this link: https://youtu.be/wiVf2tN9X7g.

 

[msnow]

Try this link: https://youtu.be/wiVf2tN9X7g.

Wow, incredible! I can see this going viral.

 

[Soolim]

Try this link: https://youtu.be/wiVf2tN9X7g.

Intriguing! How does the fob signal get to the car at a distance of 170ft???

 

[garygid]

Apparently unobstructed FOB Radio Frequency, near the speed of light, about 1 nanosecond per foot...
or perhaps Cell-data controlled by the Tesla App ... but, where is the FOB?

 

[PatD]

And I haven't been able to summon my car standing 5' away with the fob in my pocket and using my iPhone through my garage door.

 

[garygid]

I particularly like your example of a driverless Tesla picking kids up at school. What could possibly go wrong?

The car arrives home with 20 extra kids crammed in, all laughing and giggling?

 

[brucet999]

Intriguing! How does the fob signal get to the car at a distance of 170ft???

I think it must be related to that dancing spot of light - apparently from the Mothership UFO - that is visible in the shadows next to the car.