Tesla’s latest Enhanced Summon self-parking system may still be in its beta phase, but a handful of videos recently picked up by Motor Trend shows the system being put through its paces, and it doesn’t look bad.
The car manufacturer launched its first iteration of Summon a few years ago and the newly-updated system appears faster and more advanced than ever. To use Enhanced Summon, Tesla owners simply navigate to the Tesla application on their smartphone, pin a pickup location within a 150-foot radius of the car and as the owner holds down a button on the screen, the car will drive itself to where you are.
Also Read: Tesla Updates Model 3 To Include Summon Feature
Enhanced Summon is far from perfect, though. Not only is the car limited to just 3 mph (4.8 km/h), but it does occasionally run into issues where it is unable to determine an appropriate path from a parking space to where the operator sets a pickup point. In addition, the car often uses erratic steering wheel movements as it looks to steer itself to a specific location. It clearly doesn’t mimic how a human drives, and even with no other vehicles in a parking lot, it aggressively cuts corners.
Evidently, the system still has a long way to go before being perfected, but as it stands, it is more advanced than any other on the market. We’re not entirely convinced about the practical use of Enhanced Summon, however, and can only think of a few scenarios where it would actually be worth using. For example, if it was raining outside, you could direct the car to pick you up from outside your office without getting wet.