After showing us how the Model S’ new Summon feature works last week, this time the owner of the car does a more extensive demonstration.
While the Model S is able to slowly make its way to you in a straight line, from wherever it is you parked it, the main function, so to speak, of this self-parking system is for the car to open the garage door by itself and back itself up towards you so that all you need to do is get in and drive off.
As before, the system is activated via an iPhone app, though we would have liked to see how soon the garage door opened after the ‘Summon’ button was pushed – the footage skipped ahead right at that moment.
After the garage door is fully raised, the Model S waits a couple more seconds (felt like 7-8 seconds) before it started slowly reversing into the drive way. If you still feel like the car is taking forever to back up, that’s because it is. Then again, the software is still under development and it’s not like any Model S owner would want to see the car maneuver itself like a lunatic.
Hopefully in the end, the system gets a little faster (not by much) and will prove to be as reliable and convenient as Tesla hopes it will.
To think that we’re just a few years away from these cars becoming fully autonomous is a wonderful thing, which is why we can’t wait for the first amateur footage of an owner waiting for his car to leave the garage, pick him up and drive him to work all by its pretty little self.