# Can you guide the autopark feature to a fairly small spot?



## Splosions (Oct 23, 2017)

I share our 2 car garage with both my wife and my motorcycle.

in order from left to right is, Wife's car, My car, Motorcycle, as close to the wall as possible.

In order to park my car in a way that I can still get into it in the morning, I have to park in a pretty specific spot that is fairly close to the motorcycle.









I have to back my car out of the garage before anyone can get into the passengers side.

When my model 3 arrives, I want to use the auto park (Included with EAP) the back teh car into my spot, so that the charger port is facing right side wall.

Here is my hypothetical dilemma.

I arrive home before my wife, so the Tesla will see a giant open 2 car garage.

Is there a way i can mark off that I want the car to reverse into the garage and scoot the passenger side as close to the motorcycle as reasonably possible?


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## Petra (Sep 12, 2017)

Perpendicular auto park currently only works if there are vehicles on either side of the target parking spot that the car can detect as you slowly drive past. Also, it will only center the car in the space.

What it seems like you want the car to do is summon into the garage (which is separate from auto park)... which is doable, but you have to do the major alignment for it, the offset you're looking for will be problematic, and having summon operate in super close proximity to objects is less than ideal. For this situation, I'd argue that summon just isn't capable enough yet, but it may be workable if you're okay with there being less space between your car and your wife's car (assuming there's no tricky maneuvering to get into the garage).


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Petra said:


> Perpendicular auto park currently only works if there are vehicles on either side of the target parking spot that the car can detect as you slowly drive past.


I've read that elsewhere. It appears to rely on the ultrasonic sensors instead of the cameras. Hopefully that will be updated at some point.


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## Splosions (Oct 23, 2017)

Petra said:


> Perpendicular auto park currently only works if there are vehicles on either side of the target parking spot that the car can detect as you slowly drive past. Also, it will only center the car in the space.
> 
> What it seems like you want the car to do is summon into the garage (which is separate from auto park)... which is doable, but you have to do the major alignment for it, the offset you're looking for will be problematic, and having summon operate in super close proximity to objects is less than ideal. For this situation, I'd argue that summon just isn't capable enough yet, but it may be workable if you're okay with there being less space between your car and your wife's car (assuming there's no tricky maneuvering to get into the garage).


Looks like I am going to need to start practicing backing into the garage with my current car


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## Charlie W (Apr 23, 2016)

@Splosions - I was also wondering the same type of thing because of our narrowish 2-car/1 long garage door. (Right now, in order for passengers to comfortably enter our cars, we have to pull out of the garage.) Since my wife prefers to back her car in, my car goes in "head first", so that the 2 driver doors meet in the garage's center aisle. I was wondering if a line painted (or taped) on the floor -- like parking lot lines -- would work, so my Model 3 would know where or how far over to park. (Since the charging door will also be in the center aisle, I'm also "inventing" a way pull down the charging cable from the ceiling.)


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## Petra (Sep 12, 2017)

Charlie W said:


> @Splosions - I was also wondering the same type of thing because of our narrowish 2-car/1 long garage door. (Right now, in order for passengers to comfortably enter our cars, we have to pull out of the garage.) Since my wife prefers to back her car in, my car goes in "head first", so that the 2 driver doors meet in the garage's center aisle. I was wondering if a line painted (or taped) on the floor -- like parking lot lines -- would work, so my Model 3 would know where or how far over to park. (Since the charging door will also be in the center aisle, I'm also "inventing" a way pull down the charging cable from the ceiling.)


At present, both the auto park features and summon rely on the car's ultrasonic sensors for alignment and obstacle detection. Painting lines in your garage won't do anything to help unless Tesla starts making use of the cameras for said operations--I'd expect this to happen eventually, but your guess is probably as good as mine about _when_ it'll happen.


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## ng0 (Apr 11, 2017)

Charlie W said:


> @Splosions - I was also wondering the same type of thing because of our narrowish 2-car/1 long garage door. (Right now, in order for passengers to comfortably enter our cars, we have to pull out of the garage.) Since my wife prefers to back her car in, my car goes in "head first", so that the 2 driver doors meet in the garage's center aisle. I was wondering if a line painted (or taped) on the floor -- like parking lot lines -- would work, so my Model 3 would know where or how far over to park. (Since the charging door will also be in the center aisle, I'm also "inventing" a way pull down the charging cable from the ceiling.)


Sounds like you have some great ideas! I'm looking forward to you getting your M3 so we can see what kinds of clever things you come up with!


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## SoFlaModel3 (Apr 15, 2017)

Petra said:


> Perpendicular auto park currently only works if there are vehicles on either side of the target parking spot that the car can detect as you slowly drive past. Also, it will only center the car in the space.
> 
> What it seems like you want the car to do is summon into the garage (which is separate from auto park)... which is doable, but you have to do the major alignment for it, the offset you're looking for will be problematic, and having summon operate in super close proximity to objects is less than ideal. For this situation, I'd argue that summon just isn't capable enough yet, but it may be workable if you're okay with there being less space between your car and your wife's car (assuming there's no tricky maneuvering to get into the garage).


What do you think about putting down stripes as if to outline a spot and then using auto park?


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

SoFlaModel3 said:


> What do you think about putting down stripes as if to outline a spot and then using auto park?


Because....


Petra said:


> Perpendicular auto park currently only works if there are vehicles on either side of the target parking spot that the car can detect as you slowly drive past.





garsh said:


> I've read that elsewhere. It appears to rely on the ultrasonic sensors instead of the cameras. Hopefully that will be updated at some point.


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## SoFlaModel3 (Apr 15, 2017)

garsh said:


> Because....


I didn't realize that was the case (limitation). Funny because my preference for parking is to hug the curb of a corner spot, parking in between cars centered in the spot would not be ideal


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Funny because my preference for parking is to hug the curb of a corner spot.


lol, I try to do that too.


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## JWardell (May 9, 2016)

Just because it doesn't work now, doesn't mean it won't work in the future. Right now AP parks between cars but I bet within the next year it will also take lines into consideration. Don't forget the software is continuously being upgraded.


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## Michael Russo (Oct 15, 2016)

Great illustration of this feature. Thanks for tweet, @Kennethbokor !


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/954349009740509184


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## SoFlaModel3 (Apr 15, 2017)

Michael Russo said:


> Great illustration of this feature. Thanks for tweet, @Kennethbokor !
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/954349009740509184


I saw that video yesterday and it made me realize I'm literally never going to use auto park for 2 reasons....

1) It's painfully slow 
2) It parks "perfect". Good right? No! It's perfectly centered between 2 cars. My preferred method of parking is corner spots only and hugging the curb leaving tons of room on the other side.

I'm sure I'll play with it a few times though


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## Brokedoc (May 28, 2017)

I use autopark rarely. When parking in a busy parking lot, I've gotten evil stares from others because they can't drive past me while the car is parking so slowly. Also, the car turns the wheel while completely stopped which is something I learned not to do because it puts extra stress on the tires and steering system.

It has already been suggested to Tesla to add an adjustment to the autopark function to be able to park closer to one side vs the other if the driver wanted to avoid getting dinged, etc.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

SoFlaModel3 said:


> 2) It parks "perfect". Good right? No! It's perfectly centered between 2 cars. My preferred method of parking is corner spots only and hugging the curb leaving tons of room on the other side.


I *may* use it to parallel park, just to avoid making a mistake and scraping up a wheel.


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## SoFlaModel3 (Apr 15, 2017)

garsh said:


> I *may* use it to parallel park, just to avoid making a mistake and scraping up a wheel.


That's a good point. In my neck of the woods parallel parking is rare and I'm generally pretty good at it, but I agree on a parallel spot I'd be likely to use it.


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## ng0 (Apr 11, 2017)

SoFlaModel3 said:


> I saw that video yesterday and it made me realize I'm literally never going to use auto park for 2 reasons....
> 
> 1) It's painfully slow
> 2) It parks "perfect". Good right? No! It's perfectly centered between 2 cars. My preferred method of parking is corner spots only and hugging the curb leaving tons of room on the other side.
> ...


I've been thinking the exact same thing. I assume at some point it'll work a lot faster, but for now it's nearly useless unless I have no other option but to mark in a tight spot that's hard to get into. I know for the first year or so I'll be parking as far from other cars as possible.


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## PNWmisty (Aug 19, 2017)

ng0 said:


> I assume at some point it'll work a lot faster, but for now it's nearly useless unless I have no other option but to mark in a tight spot that's hard to get into.


I doubt it can parallel park more competently than a good human but I'm sure it's a lot better than a human who is not competent. Of course, early adopters are helping the system learn. I'm sure Tesla collects data from every auto-park event which helps it recognize common issues in different areas around the world from which the system can adapt and improve.
So, the more you play with it, the better it can be developed!


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## Oregonian (Dec 30, 2017)

Somebody should tweet Elon to add a option for autopark that has a toggle between "center of spot" and "passenger side hug".


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## Rhaekar (Mar 27, 2018)

With the ultrasonic sensors and the display, it's ridiculously easy to precision park in a garage. They did a really good job on the display.


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## rareohs (Sep 15, 2017)

I literally have only seen the blue "P" appear twice, both time in the middle of an intersection 

Kind of a total missing feature for me. Have never been able to get it to work while actually, you know, trying to park LOL


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## Audrey (Aug 2, 2017)

Oregonian said:


> Somebody should tweet Elon to add a option for autopark that has a toggle between "center of spot" and "passenger side hug".


I know this is meant in jest, but (@telero and) I have a theory about Elon's "yes we'll implement [feature] soon" tweets. The theory is that Tesla has already developed and is almost ready to deploy any of the features Elon publicly comments about. By waiting for a tweet asking for the feature, Tesla looks like they're responding quickly to customer requests. I imagine the requests come in all the time, but rarely get any response.


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## SoFlaModel3 (Apr 15, 2017)

Audrey said:


> I know this is meant in jest, but (@telero and) I have a theory about Elon's "yes we'll implement [feature] soon" tweets. The theory is that Tesla has already developed and is almost ready to deploy any of the features Elon publicly comments about. By waiting for a tweet asking for the feature, Tesla looks like they're responding quickly to customer requests. I imagine the requests come in all the time, but rarely get any response.


I have had that same thought. There is an obvious cherry picking of what gets replied to.


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## smak (Apr 1, 2017)

rareohs said:


> I literally have only seen the blue "P" appear twice, both time in the middle of an intersection
> 
> Kind of a total missing feature for me. Have never been able to get it to work while actually, you know, trying to park LOL


Yah, I don't understand what it sees when you are stopped at an intersection, and it wants to perpendicular park into oncoming traffic the other way. That certainly isn't following the rule of one empty parking space surrounded by 2 cars. It's not even close.


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## TesLou (Aug 20, 2016)

rareohs said:


> I literally have only seen the blue "P" appear twice, both time in the middle of an intersection
> 
> Kind of a total missing feature for me. Have never been able to get it to work while actually, you know, trying to park LOL


Same for me. I was showing off the features to my niece and nephew last night and prematurely bragged about the autopark. Egg on my face as we snaked through the parking lot waiting for the "P" to come on. Never did; at least not there. Heading back home, near an intersection, my niece shouted out, "There's the P!" More egg...


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## Vladimír Michálek (Sep 24, 2017)

Audrey said:


> I know this is meant in jest, but (@telero and) I have a theory about Elon's "yes we'll implement [feature] soon" tweets. The theory is that Tesla has already developed and is almost ready to deploy any of the features Elon publicly comments about. By waiting for a tweet asking for the feature, Tesla looks like they're responding quickly to customer requests. I imagine the requests come in all the time, but rarely get any response.


I don't perceive it that way. It just that sometimes someone asks for what's about to be released anyway, so they get a reply like 'yes, soon'. 
And there were few cases where the tweet actually had an original idea for improvement, like the "don't move the seat back when put in park, also wait for belt unbuckle", which was trivial to do, so the response was there too.


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## aadams1278 (Jul 8, 2018)

rareohs said:


> ...Have never been able to get it to work while actually, you know, trying to park LOL


As far as I can tell from reading the manual and actual use, it's ONLY intended to detect available parking spots as you drive past them and then does the full parking maneuver from there. The obvious downside of that is it does take a long time to complete and makes it a "3 point" maneuver almost every time. I have managed to get it to back in without it going forward just ONCE, by apparently getting the spacing away from the parked cars JUST RIGHT before I started the autopark.

What I would like it to be able to do is let me get it roughly aligned with an open spot, behind OR in front, and let it do the precise spacing (or offset) and stop distance between lines, or cars, or curb, by itself. It seems like that would be the easy part and not require the back and forth movement, thus making it practical since it won't take a long time, so it's odd to me that that's the thing it can't do (for now).


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## TesLou (Aug 20, 2016)

I’ve had my car for almost 4 months now. 15,500 miles on it. If I’m not mistaken, autopark has “lit up” 4 times. Apparently, either me or my car has bad eyesight. For me, it doesn’t matter; like Summon, it’s only there as a “show off” feature IMO.


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