# Survey: Now that it's been a while, does anyone actually use Smart Summon?



## potatoee (Aug 26, 2018)

I have *never* been inclined to use Smart Summon aside from using it as a plaything. Anyone out there using it for practical purposes?


----------



## raptor (May 6, 2018)

Once in a blue moon, but it's so slow now, it's practically useless IMHO.


----------



## JWardell (May 9, 2016)

I used to use it to move the car around in the driveway, but since final release Tesla now blocks me with a public road warning


----------



## NOGA$4ME (Sep 30, 2016)

I do occasionally use it, but I don't really think it's any better than the alternative of just walking to the car (unless it's pouring rain). By the time you get the app to respond, get within range and fiddle with the controls to set a reasonable target, you usually could be at the car.

I did very successfully use it once while at a restaurant. We were at the window so I had a great view of the car and the lot and I summoned it over to the curb and then went out to hop in.

Again, this is still early days. By using it like this, hopefully we are helping to train it to get better. Obviously the real use of this will be when it can drop you off, go find a parking spot, and then come and pick you up automatically, without the need to be within 200 feet and watching it like a hawk. Not that we are there yet, but hopefully someday. 

I came somewhat late to the Tesla party, but not late enough to recall that while on Autopilot, I was responsible for checking behind me and to the side before initiating a lane change. In hindsight that seems really primitive now compared to the whole Navigate on Autopilot capability. In a couple of years I am hoping we can look back at today's Smart Summon in a similar way.


----------



## slasher016 (Sep 12, 2017)

I use it when it's raining really hard.


----------



## iChris93 (Feb 3, 2017)

I’ve created a poll for your question.


----------



## kuzzy (Jul 2, 2018)

Occasionally. Still don't trust it in a busy or crowded parking lot. It did come in handy when my wife had sprained her ankle pretty badly. At least she did not have to walk so far to the car but I could have just as easily gone and got the care and picked her up. It is just too slow for the distance you can use it at to make it worthwhile, it is faster to walk and better for you


----------



## evannole (Jun 18, 2018)

I tried it once, in the rain, at night, in a fairly empty Whole Foods parking lot. It tried to take a very strange route through a row of parking spaces that had a few empty spots. That seemed unwise to me, so I abandoned the effort. Unfortunately, where I had it quit made it look like I had parked across two spots, and even though the lot was quite empty, a jerk in a giant pickup truck took it upon himself to yell at me very aggressively for that as we were loading our groceries into the trunk. I have not tried Smart Summon since.


----------



## Mr. Spacely (Feb 28, 2019)

It is great in the rain, but mostly I use it to show off Tesla's capabilities. Older folks are blown away by it...


----------



## NR4P (Jul 14, 2018)

Use it in the rain and I watch it from a distance. Has improved since first rollout.


----------



## Long Ranger (Jun 1, 2018)

If it worked better, I’d use it occasionally. As it Is now, I’ve never used it for any practical purpose and I’ve never even shown it to another person. I do experiment with it several times a week in my work parking lot. I find it usually fails completely, and even when it does work it drives like it’s drunk.

I do use regular Summon in my driveway on a daily basis. I find that feature very useful for tight parking situations. Best use ever was sitting at a sidewalk cafe and moving my car forward so the car parallel parked behind me could easily get out of a tight spot.


----------



## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

Tried it once. Thought it was EXTREMELY erratic & dangerous and have not revisited since.


----------



## NOGA$4ME (Sep 30, 2016)

Klaus-rf said:


> Tried it once. Thought it was EXTREMELY erratic & dangerous and have not revisited since.


Depending on how early on it was, you might want to give it another shot. It has improved. It also now shows you the route the car plans to take so you can decide whether it's going to do the right thing or not before you actually do anything.


----------



## Frully (Aug 30, 2018)

potatoee said:


> I have *never* been inclined to use Smart Summon aside from using it as a plaything. Anyone out there using it for practical purposes?


I use it as much as possible to have it learn - I park right at the absolute edge of its range and usually start the summon as I'm walking out of the office. It meets me halfway and often coworkers/bystanders freak out that my car is running away. 
basically...I use it as much to troll people as to make it better.


----------



## FogNoggin (Mar 19, 2019)

Long Ranger said:


> I do experiment with it several times a week in my work parking lot. I find it usually fails completely, and even when it does work it drives like it's drunk.


This.


----------



## Kizzy (Jul 25, 2016)

I don’t get to use it regularly as I’m often in locations that are kind of busy, small, or without cellular coverage. But I’ve had it meet me (and some equipment) near the door of a friend’s apartment due to it being in a residential parking lot.


----------



## aresal (Apr 23, 2019)

Every time I get a new SW update I try it out at my work parking lot in the evening (having mapped the lot on OpenMaps myself). As others noted, it’s not very good and has not improved with each SW iteration.


----------



## Grey Fox (Aug 11, 2018)

Never.


----------



## sduck (Nov 23, 2017)

I have never once used it. I considered trying it if I could find an appropriate place to test it, but found more interesting things to do instead.


----------



## Sjohnson20 (Mar 8, 2018)

I haven’t used it for any good reason other than to see what it does and show other people.

It takes so long to get the app open, get it warmed up, then have it start coming to you.


----------



## gary in NY (Dec 2, 2018)

I tried it once at home on my long winding driveway and it was all over the place. While turning around it ran over a small pile of stones off the driveway I didn’t see from my vantage point. Fortunately, that didn’t do any damage that I could see, but that was enough for me. I do use summon pretty regularly to move the car out of the garage though. But it will not pull back in.


----------



## Spiffywerks (Jul 30, 2017)

I only ever use “Come to me” as I’m walking towards it. The range limit on smart summon is about 30 seconds walking distance, which is really useless because it takes longer for the car to pull out of the stall and get going before I could walk to the car.

If I could be in my office, getting ready to head out, use smart summon so it’s waiting by the exit of the building, then it might actually be useful. For now, completely a gimmick that turns some heads, but that’s all. Plus it doesn’t drive on the correct side of a lane when moving. It’s too “dumb” in its current state.


----------



## SoFlaModel3 (Apr 15, 2017)

The novelty wore off and now I only need it should a “real” need arise. One good use case was when I parked far away at a mall. When I went in the sun was out. When I came out it was dark out, the parking lot wasn’t well lit, and it was especially dark by my car. I summoned it to me where I hopped in quickly and drove off.


----------



## Routybouty (Jan 4, 2017)

I would use it more if it didn't think my car was facing 180 degrees from real life and try to pull out of the spot incorrectly because of this.


----------



## JDM3 (Jun 22, 2018)

I experimented with it awhile back in an almost empty parking lot. There were two cars. I assumed the car would take a more direct route to me and avoid the parked cars, but for some reason it decided to drive by and through the two parked cars. Made me too nervous, haven't tried it since.


----------



## Derik (Jul 26, 2017)

I try it out every so often just to see if it's gotten any better. I don't trust it so I'm always nearby making sure I can see whatever it is doing. I even go as far as making sure there are no other cars coming down the parking aisle at the time.

For my it is totally hit or miss if it comes toward me or turns away. (come to me or goto target. I've learned goto target is much better for me)

All of the time it is faster just to walk to the car, but it isn't nearly as cool as watching your car drive up to you.


----------



## skygraff (Jun 2, 2017)

After learning that it only worked, semi-reliably, if I left it in standby mode (which uses more energy while parked), I haven't bothered trying it since the early days except for one time. When I came out of a meeting to find pouring rain and a mostly empty parking lot, I tried using summon without having left it in standby. Couldn't use, obviously, the come to me option but using the go to location method was pretty bad.

The car started out okay by (unnecessarily) backing out of its parking space but then (illogically) drove through the parking space lines. Once it was in the lane it passed the turn to the front of the building and pulled to an area which was close enough to the feeder road that it thought it was on a public street and stopped. I had to use basic summon to back it up then, once it considered itself in the parking lot (just 3 feet), I tried smart summon again.

It turned itself around and went against the flow of traffic defined by the angled parking spaces then pulled through the middle of the spaces to face me and the building directly (very close to the only other vehicle in the lot so I had to stop it). Ultimately, I probably walked in the rain as much as I would've had I just gone to the spot where I'd parked. I don't know if that parking lot is well defined in whatever reference smart summon uses but it sure would be nice if, should some details be missing from its database, the system might ask for direction of flow information before commencing movement.


----------



## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

I tried it and got lucky that it didn't crash. Haven't used it since. It's particularly dangerous for me at work since I park under a carport right next to a pole, which I understand would be completely blind to the car. So a good chance the car might try to turn out of the spot (there are no cars either side of me usually) and crunch the pole.

Not worth staying dry!

Of course, I could back it straight out into the parking lot using regular summon, then run advanced summon. But that seems like more hassle than it's worth, unless it's absolutely pouring down.


----------



## Kizzy (Jul 25, 2016)

Needsdecaf said:


> I tried it and got lucky that it didn't crash. Haven't used it since. It's particularly dangerous for me at work since I park under a carport right next to a pole, which I understand would be completely blind to the car. So a good chance the car might try to turn out of the spot (there are no cars either side of me usually) and crunch the pole.
> 
> Not worth staying dry!
> 
> Of course, I could back it straight out into the parking lot using regular summon, then run advanced summon. But that seems like more hassle than it's worth, unless it's absolutely pouring down.


I hear that. I've had similar worries (and complications) related to that. Perhaps we need to spend more time near our vehicles during those kinds of Smart Summon events to verify the car is backing straight out.


----------



## WonkoTheSane (Nov 14, 2018)

I use it at work probably once a week. I have to be careful where I park so it doesn't get confused. Getting the HW3 upgrade on Monday the 3rd, we will see if that helps it.


----------



## bwilson4web (Mar 4, 2019)

When I have the dogs in the car, summon lets me call them and drive the car to me.

Bob Wilson


----------



## IPv6Freely (Aug 8, 2017)

I don't trust it enough yet. Considering the bad decisions NoAP still makes, I probably won't try it any time soon.


----------



## ateslik (Apr 13, 2018)

hell to the no. I’m a quick learner and only needed expensive body damage on my car one time to decide that beta features are not for me.


----------



## Defiant (Jan 19, 2020)

I've used it three times- once as an experiment, and twice to actually use it. Only in abandoned lots, and there it worked pretty well. I've also use the Summon to move the car enough to raise the tire valve to the top of the wheel, because I'm lazy, and there's always that question about whether I'll be able to get back up or not.


----------



## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

I've only tried out smart summon a couple times, last was in a nearly empty parking lot to show a co-worker. it was a pretty big fail with the car very indecisive. 
here's the view from the car's cameras up until we gave up on it figuring out what it was scared of.


----------



## Derik (Jul 26, 2017)

Well I went to try it out with the new software yesterday.
Car started up smart summon, put the car in reverse.. moved back a couple feet and stopped... Thank god.
I backed into the spot, and what was behind the car was bushes and a ~50ft hill. 
So for some reason the location part of the app showed my car heading correctly, but the summon part showed the car the wrong way. 

At least the car stopped because it was "waiting for path to clear" due to the bushes behind the car.

I tried to help it by using normal summon and making it go forward out of the spot, and tried smart summon again. But it threw it back into reverse and started to back up into the spot again. At that point I called it..


----------



## styleruk (Dec 3, 2018)

Never use it for practical purpose. Occasionally check to see if it actually has improved, but I normally stand next to the car like a plum listening to my Tesla wind on and off the handbrake, flash it's lights and then occasionally moving a few inches. Gee, wow, what a feature. 
So no, not for practical reasons ever.
In UK, you have to stand within 6metres or feet and you can ask it to come to you....what? complete tosh. So I await the day when the legal twats stop resisting and allow the car to do what it can.


----------



## Daryl (Feb 10, 2019)

Used once in the rain to bring the car to the curb. Used occasionally just for fun.

As someone else mentioned, it has a weird tendency to back up first, even when it can pull straight forward and get to me easily.

Slow, hesitant. Still needs work, but better too slow than too reckless!


----------



## bwilson4web (Mar 4, 2019)

Derik said:


> I tried to help it by using normal summon and making it go forward out of the spot, and tried smart summon again. But it threw it back into reverse and started to back up into the spot again. At that point I called it..


OK! It needs to backed up to either another vehicle, base of a parking lot light, rear curb, or a building wall.

Looking forward to the retest.

Bob Wilson


----------



## Midnit3 (Oct 8, 2017)

I use it all the time..


----------



## EpsilonKore (Aug 16, 2018)

I have used it maybe 5x in the last month. I find myself parking in “easy to summon” parking spots on rainy days. Can’t wait till it can drop you off and park itself.


----------



## RickO2018 (Mar 13, 2018)

I use it rarely since having a clear view of the car is important and rare. Tried to use it recently during a rain storm to pick up my party at a restaurant door, and it made it part way before reporting the visibility (due to rain and darkness) was too poor.


----------



## pdp1 (Nov 8, 2018)

I just use it for fun when I leave late from work and there are very few cars left in the parking lot. The other day I tried it for the 3rd time (total) and I realized smart summon doesn't allow the car to go far enough (max 200ft, was this added recently?) to traverse two aisle lengths, down one aisle and back up another, to get the car to me outside the door to my office building. We have one way aisles in the parking lot and the one I park in is oriented away from my building. Anyway, my car just stopped in the middle of the aisle coming back to me and I had to walk out to the car anyway. It also seemed a lot more cautious this time around compared to the previous two attempts (with older firmware).


----------



## DocScott (Mar 6, 2019)

pdp1 said:


> I just use it for fun when I leave late from work and there are very few cars left in the parking lot. The other day I tried it for the 3rd time (total) and I realized smart summon doesn't allow the car to go far enough (max 200ft, was this added recently?) to traverse two aisle lengths, down one aisle and back up another, to get the car to me outside the door to my office building. We have one way aisles in the parking lot and the one I park in is oriented away from my building. Anyway, my car just stopped in the middle of the aisle coming back to me and I had to walk out to the car anyway. It also seemed a lot more cautious this time around compared to the previous two attempts (with older firmware).


Does that mean it knew which way was the right way to drive down those aisles? That's new!


----------



## Mosess (Sep 13, 2018)

I use it fairly regularly. Especially when I'm with my wife someplace and it's raining (Atlanta has been a rainforest lately) and we don't feel like getting soaked. I find it very useful and practical. Yes it is slower than a human driving, but that's because it is being more cautious which is a good thing.
Overall, it is a feature that as it gets improved will become more and more useful with time as it gains more experience and moves the car as fast a human would without the mistakes that humans make. If Tesla wanted to sell it as an add-on, I would price this feature alone at $1-2k and at such price most would buy it to eventually upgrade to it.


----------



## pdp1 (Nov 8, 2018)

DocScott said:


> Does that mean it knew which way was the right way to drive down those aisles? That's new!


That's a good point, I never really thought about how it knows which direction it can/needs to go down a parking aisle, but smart summon has always known in the 3 times I've used it. I'm guessing it sees the orientation/angle of the car while parked compared to the direction of the aisle and just assumes to go the direction where it doesn't need to turn the wheel too far when backing out. But then that also begs the question, what if you're parked backwards, i.e. front of car is facing out?


----------



## Kizzy (Jul 25, 2016)

pdp1 said:


> That's a good point, I never really thought about how it knows which direction it can/needs to go down a parking aisle, but smart summon has always known in the 3 times I've used it. I'm guessing it sees the orientation/angle of the car while parked compared to the direction of the aisle and just assumes to go the direction where it doesn't need to turn the wheel too far when backing out. But then that also begs the question, what if you're parked backwards, i.e. front of car is facing out?


I've heard it said that it uses Open Street Map data (which has detailed maps of parking lots, including the direction of lanes and location of obstacles).


----------



## Milo (Apr 4, 2016)

Too slow to even be a parlor trick at this point.


----------



## ryantollefson (Sep 12, 2017)

Hadn't used it much for quite a while, so thought I'd try again... Used it successfully a few times in the last month, then last week it did this:











I had parked next to a curb (obviously), but wasn't that close. There was also plenty of space for the car to back out and turn, it just turned a little too soon. I didn't have a good enough angle to see that side, and by the time I realized it was close, it was too late.


----------



## Ksb466 (Oct 22, 2018)

I took a long break from Summon, but recently retried and have begun using more regularly now. When leaving a store without much in hand, or much activity on the lot, i summon the car using Come to Me, while continuing to walk towards it. By the time we meet it’s backed out and come another 50 feet. I hop in and drive off, often With a confused onlooker. It’s worked every time and is a legit time saver used in this way. covid has made parking lots much less busy to do this. Particularly helpful if you like to park far away in the parking lot. 
Im not sure it used to work so well while I was walking, but it does now. And it was silly to just stand there and wait unless it was raining hard.


----------



## SoFlaModel3 (Apr 15, 2017)

Ksb466 said:


> I took a long break from Summon, but recently retried and have begun using more regularly now. When leaving a store without much in hand, or much activity on the lot, i summon the car using Come to Me, while continuing to walk towards it. By the time we meet it's backed out and come another 50 feet. I hop in and drive off, often With a confused onlooker. It's worked every time and is a legit time saver used in this way. covid has made parking lots much less busy to do this. Particularly helpful if you like to park far away in the parking lot.
> Im not sure it used to work so well while I was walking, but it does now. And it was silly to just stand there and wait unless it was raining hard.


I only use it when it's time to make someone's head explode -- for instance visiting (at a safe distance) my wife's grandmother yesterday for Mother's Day. She's in her 90s. It was raining, so we summoned the car and her jaw dropped.

Beyond that, no, really never.

For my purposes there are 2 possible use cases...
(1) It's raining and there is an opportunity to get the car under an overhang -- rare because I park so far away that I'm usually out of range
(2) You come back to your car and find someone parked too close or it rained and a puddle formed around the car -- either case making it too difficult to get in the car. Also rare for me because again, I park so far away.

Long story short I feel (for me) that Summon is a novelty. I wouldn't separately pay for it, but its always a conversation starter when you melt someone's brain


----------



## NickJonesS71 (May 11, 2020)

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I only use it when it's time to make someone's head explod


I find using it often does that, wondering why the car makes such odd moves, goes slow, often my head explodes wondering why I've wasted my time instead of just walking to the car 🤯


----------



## Garlan Garner (May 24, 2016)

I use it almost daily. 

If Tesla is looking for data on it.....I would like to assist so that they can improve on what they are doing.


----------



## bwilson4web (Mar 4, 2019)

Every time I use summon, I learn a little more about where it works better or worse. For example, learning that the car wants to back up if it does not sense an object behind it. Parking so the curb is not visible, say the rear bumper is over the curb, the car is frozen in that spot. It can be manually moved forward (if clear) and then summoned.

As a general rule of thumb, summon works best if the sensors detect objects on both sides. But if there is nothing, the steering appears to hunt for a best way out. Once out of the parking spot, the car steers more direct.

AutoPilot was foreign so it took about three weeks to gain confidence by teaching me what works and doesn't. In some respects, that is the case with summon . . . training the driver what works and doesn't work.

Bob Wilson


----------



## JustTheTip (Jun 7, 2018)

One time last year where some idiot parked too close to me. So I pulled the car back with SS. That was the one and only real-world use I’ve had. It was useful for that. But i haven’t had the need since.


----------



## gary in NY (Dec 2, 2018)

Ever the optimist, I tried smart summon this morning. Simple task: back out of the garage and pick me up at the front door 90 feet away. It looked good at the very start as the car fired up, went into reverse, and headed out. Then stopped and turned the wheels back and forth a few times. A moment later a message appeared in the app that it was waiting for the path to clear. Well, it never did clear, and I almost couldn't get the driver's door open far enough to get in (I thought I was going to have to "summon" the car out of the doorway). 

The car will dumb summon out of the garage well enough, but smart summon is just too smart for its own good.


----------



## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

Still No.


----------



## TeslaTony310 (Jan 15, 2020)

Don't use it anymore, and don't plan to, until the re-write is complete. I suspect it will be MUCH improved, as the re-write's main benefit seems to be labelling curves and such, in 3D space.


----------



## potatoee (Aug 26, 2018)

I never use it. Probably because I'm not in an urban area. I should probably play with it so I'm comfortable with it if I ever need it.


----------



## iChris93 (Feb 3, 2017)

potatoee said:


> Probably because I'm not in an urban area.


Boston is not urban?


----------



## John Di Cecco (Sep 25, 2017)

My car was parked in the street the other day. Front facing away from driveway, and rear of car facing toward driveway. I thought it would be interesting to see if the car could figure out how to pull into the driveway and park next to my wife's car. Smart summon works on our road given we are in a cul de sac. Car started out pretty good. It started to try to do a K turn to get front facing my driveway. I was almost getting ready to be really impressed. Then my car pulled up into my neighbors driveway. Good thing neighbors were not out lauging at me.


----------



## bwilson4web (Mar 4, 2019)

It works best if parked 'head in' because summon wants to backup first. With rear against the curb, the car needs to be manually moved forward so it can do the backup step.

Bob Wilson


----------



## bwilson4web (Mar 4, 2019)

On the edge of a thunder storm, I summoned the car at a favorite restaurant. Next thing I know, there is a Dad and his two kids outside and he is asking, "Did your car just drive to you?"

Long story short, he got in the driver seat; son in the passenger seat; daughter in the rear behind driver, and; me behind the passenger seat. I walked him through adjusting the seats, mirrors, and took a short drive to the street and back. Not a full test drive but it made an impression.

Bob Wilson


----------



## Nautilus (Oct 10, 2018)

Made a quick run to the grocery store this afternoon to pick up a few things. I come out and it's bucketing rain. There's several of us all standing under the overhang waiting for the monsoon to let up a bit. I look over to the left and there's a woman standing there, and just then a Mercedes pulls up and she gets in. Her gallant husband had obviously gone to retrieve the car and then pick her up.

I'm thinking to myself "Jeez, it'd sure be nice if I had someone to go retrieve my car", when I then remembered "Waaaiiiiit a minute, I can do that with Summon!".

I haven't used Summon in over a year, and then only in an empty school parking lot to see what it could do. As others have mentioned, it was (to my mind) still a party trick. But I thought, I have over a year's worth of software updates since then, so I'd give it a whirl. My car was parked about 50 yards away, nose in, in the row of parking spaces that came right up to where I was standing. The lot was reasonably busy, with a fair number of cars and pedestrians coming and going, so a good test of conditions in the wild.

The car performed reasonably well. It backed out of the space, and then turned towards me. It was pretty obvious to all around that happened to look that there was no one in the car driving it. Nautilus hesitated, while trying to decipher what the pedestrians were all doing. The car behind it got impatient and honked at it. Then Nautilus started moving toward me, ever more confident. The impatient one (a minivan!) pulled into an empty space, so that pressure was gone. I didn't have Nautilus come right up to me. I chickened out, given some of the cross traffic directly in front of the store. I had Nautilus stop 10 yards from me where the parking spaces ended.

I trotted out, deposited the groceries in the trunk, then realized foolishly that I had to trot a bit further to put the shopping cart in one of the cart corrals. So much for staying completely dry.

As I was getting in the car, a passerby remarked to me. *"That was pretty slick".*

I got in the car, and was getting ready to drive away when another person signaled to me to lower my window. Expecting an ear-bashing for playing silly games in the parking lot, I lowered the window with some trepidation. Even behind his COVID-19 mask it became evident he was grinning ear to ear as he exclaimed: *"I like what you did there, that was smoooooth".
*
As I drove away, the two teenagers collecting carts from the lot just stood and stared.


----------



## ibgeek (Aug 26, 2019)

I've used it a few times in the past couple months. Once for weather and once because my mom was with me and she's not moving so well these days. It's miles better than it used to be. Worked very well.


----------



## bwilson4web (Mar 4, 2019)

I'm still have some uncertainty and today it started to drive away from me. 

Bob Wilson


----------



## shareef777 (Mar 10, 2019)

I used it once, and once only. I've got to admit that it performed absolutely perfectly in a downpour in a Costco parking lot. After I got home and saw the video it freaked me out what the car was capable of, that I got too scared to try to repeat that. Especially since the only practical use for me is when I'm far away from the vehicle and the weather is bad (which means I can't see the car and the car/people can't see each other as well either).

Luckily my daughter recorded the "event".

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1177770785148149760


----------



## NOGA$4ME (Sep 30, 2016)

Nautilus said:


> Made a quick run to the grocery store this afternoon to pick up a few things. I come out and it's bucketing rain.


Same exact thing happened to me on Friday. I go into the store, weather is fine. Come out: POURING.

Like you, everyone is just standing under the overhang waiting for some kind of break, but it's starting to get real crowded there with everyone trying to distance. Perfect opportunity to use (and show off) Smart Summon. And I've used it enough to know to direct the car just PAST where I'm standing so the trunk is lined up with me for my groceries.

I pull up the app, request Smart Summon and I see that the path the car intends to take is reasonable (including backing out of the nose-in spot). All looks good, so I go ahead and hit the GO TO TARGET button. The car backs out about one foot and then I get the message the Smart Summon is not allowed on public roads. Crazy! I'm definitely in a private parking lot. I try again, no dice. So I had to run quickly to my car that is now partially backed out, decide whether I'm going to waste more time pulling it back into the spot first (I didn't), and then yes, I had to run the cart back to the cart return area. Disappointing!


----------



## Garlan Garner (May 24, 2016)

I don't "use" smart summon at all, however I play with it ALL of the time. To me.....smart summon is much like the Netflix and Games features. I don't need them, but they sure are cool to utilize.

I would venture to say that I have well over 100 miles of smart summon. 

I bought it.....so I play with it.


----------



## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

Still No.

And I don't really understand why so many folks are afraid of rain and getting a little wet. Earth is very strange.


----------



## crmatson (Mar 27, 2017)

I showed my father-in-law recently at an empty parking lot. 
As my car was pulling around to where we waiting, a pick-up truck pulled in the lot and behind my car. 
The car had to navigate down a one way lane and turn 180 degrees to where we were waiting. 
My car executed the maneuver flawlessly. The truck driver struck a curb as he was looking at my car and not where he was going. 
We chuckled as he drove off. 

I don't use smart summon very often, but is pretty impressive.


----------



## WonkoTheSane (Nov 14, 2018)

After a "social distancing" drinking event in a parking lot I had to walk quite a way to use a portapotty. Rather than walk back after I was done, I had my car follow me to the bathroom as I walked there. After a few gawks and obvious confusion, it got a pretty big laugh from the crowd. 

I do use it occasionally, but not at Sam's Club or the grocery store where it would be most helpful. Too much going on in those lots.


----------



## lance.bailey (Apr 1, 2019)

I used smart summon today - successfully.

underground parking below the grocery. not many cars, none on either side of me and only one other person. 

set the target, press&hold and the car backed out, turned to face me and drove up to me. Then I got in.

Totally useless: I was not in the rain, I knew where the car was, I was only 50 feet away.

But it was fun shouting "here car, here car" as it approached.


----------



## skygraff (Jun 2, 2017)

Throw my own “go to the store story,” here:

Big line of storms rolled through town Monday and I was heading home. Rain let up as I approached the store so decided to grab some stuff while I was there. As I was walking out, the storm had picked back up and I decided this was an ideal opportunity to see if a year’s worth of updates and HW 3 would make any difference.

Since I turned off standby mode for battery saving, I sent it to the door close to me but didn’t have it come to me. Very impressed with how much quicker it’s moving now; very confident. When it first backed out of the parking space, I did a double take because it was so smooth I started to doubt that’s where I’d parked.

It did a great job dealing with a little traffic (somebody backed out in front of it) and a few pedestrians but I didn’t trust it enough to leave my finger on the button. As the congestion cleared and I went to put my finger back, I noticed it had alerted about the conflicts and was ahead of me.

Instead of going around an island in order to approach the door on the same side of the lane as me, smart summon chose to enter the main lane across the road so, rather than let it continue to that side door, I stopped it and got in. While I would’ve preferred it pulling up as close to the door as possible, that would’ve meant the passenger door was closest so I walked through the same amount of rain.

Don’t know if anyone saw me/it through the pouring rain but, if anything, they may have noticed when I got in the driver seat after it pulled up.

Still don’t like that the mirrors fold during summon (regardless of obstacles) and don’t unfold as soon as the driver seat is occupied. Used voice commands to unfold rather than wait until 30mph.

All in all, impressed with its progress and am back to wondering how it will unplug itself when I want to summon it from a charger (or send it to my parents’ house while I’m out of town when FSD is enabled).


----------



## styleruk (Dec 3, 2018)

I'm so jealous here in the UK, smart summon simply does not work. You have to be so close to the car to use it, it becomes pointless. After every update I give it a go and get the same result. I end up standing there like a plum watching my car struggle to move like a jittering 95 year old and turning the handbrake on and off, moving 2 inches, telling me it can't connect. I've never showed it to anyone when they ask, I just say, 'No, it don't do that'. Saves me the embarrassment of it not working in front of someone. But the videos of people using it in the US is quite cool. Maybe one day we'll have that function along with all the other functions you seem to have working over the pond. (jealousy is a terrible thing). :-(


----------



## bcamp83 (Jan 2, 2019)

I still don't use mine. I just tested it and it missed the turn and then just decided to quit. All I wanted to do was drive from the front of my house to the rear of my house and it missed the first turn, did a nice backup and fixed itself. Then it missed the second turn and wanted to drive through the neighbor's yard. Also, I seem to have summon fail 100% of the time on the first try. Anyone else have that? It will commonly work on the second try but by that time, I've pretty much walked to the car. 

2018 M3 with latest update on 30 Aug 20.


----------



## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

I used "normal" summon on Tuesday aftn. I parked close to a kerb on the drivers side when I got out of the car and decided to try normal straight forward summon to see if the car could move itself forward 10 feet so I could get in without walking over the kerb. It worked just as expected but I was watching it carefully to make sure it didn't make any sudden turns that would quickly put a wheel into a kerb.

I do have a usability comment on the cell phone applet for Summon - it's almost impossible to even see the screen and "buttons" in sunlight. Would much rather have a fob with forward/reverse buttons that one can actually see.


----------



## ibgeek (Aug 26, 2019)

Used smart summon the other day for a legit reason.

My car was parked in a large shopping center parking lot but the store I shopped at had cart wheel locks if you crossed over a lined off area. My car was way outside that area and I had too much in the cart to carry in one load.
The lot was fairly busy but not as chaotic as some can be. My car backed out of its spot and not only came directly to where I wanted it, but it actually did so in a way that was not at all inconvenient to anyone else around my car. That was my biggest complaint before is that the car would stop often in the middle of the road and block other cars until you ran and got in. She came over to me and pulled to the side of the road so I could casually load the car and be on my way. Very happy with the progress.


----------



## styleruk (Dec 3, 2018)

Well I'd be! Used smart summon last night and it actually worked, just wanted to move the car back a few feet after putting something in the boot and low and behold for the first time ever, it worked. Maybe recent updates have fixed some things. I'm on 2020.36.10.


----------



## sterickson (Sep 6, 2018)

It was a gimmick to wow the kids when leaving the movie theater - back when it was safe to go to a movie theater ...


----------



## bwilson4web (Mar 4, 2019)

Had a complete fail to come to READY tonight, 2020.36.10 that even rebooting the iPhone did not clear. 

In the morning I'll do a bluetooth disconnect; double button Tesla reboot; power reset the iPhone, and; bluetooth reconnect. Then I'll test it again in a local parking lot.

Bob Wilson


----------



## orekart (Nov 15, 2018)

When I'd most like to use Smart Summon I still have to disconnect the car from the charging station. Then more often dumb summon to roll out enough for the driver's door to open. It's an interesting flex but the binary go/no-go control is inelegant.


----------



## bwilson4web (Mar 4, 2019)

Smart summon has become more difficult to start up and run and at about half the previous range:

make sure driver side mirror won't be blocked by car or other stuff
Tesla 2020.36.10
IOS 14.0
What I found is, use "FORWARD" or "REVERSE" to wakeup the car. Then "Smart Summon" or "Come To Me" works. I find "Come To Me" is better even if it is based on "Smart Summon." The dogs agree.

Bob Wilson


----------

