Tesla appears closer to releasing an improved Auto Park feature
Tesla
If you’ve been out Christmas shopping, Tesla’s long-awaited Park Seek may have been on your mind. For more than a year, the company has been talking about this technology that would take over the job of not only parking, but finding a parking spot. Elon Musk has brought the long-anticipated feature back into the spotlight.
What is "Tap to Park"?
Now referred to as Tap to Park, Park Seek, also once known as Reverse Summon, is an innovative feature that Tesla officials discussed at AI Day in October of 2022. At that point, Tesla said this feature should be ready by the end of the year.
That didn’t happen, and now it sounds like there have been some changes to the original idea, given Musk’s post on X.
We are working on a feature where the car identifies probable viable parking spaces. You tap on one, exit the vehicle and it parks there.
The Evolution from Autopark to "Tap to Park"
Tesla's current Autopark feature, currently only available in vehicles equipped with Ultrasonic Sensors (USS), has been a stepping stone toward autonomous parking. However, its limitations include the lack of multiple parking spot selections and drivers' need to stay in the car. Tesla users noted these constraints, indicating a need for an upgrade. The current implementation of Autopark is also slow to park and requires driving extremely slowly to get the park symbol to show up on the vehicle’s display.
Earlier this year, Tesla introduced vision-based Park Assist, a system that utilizes camera-based tech to estimate distances between the car and nearby objects while parking. This development marked a transition away from USS and laid the groundwork for more advanced features like "Tap to Park."
Is “Tap to Park” a Replacement for Park Seek?
Park Seek has been previously touted by Musk as a revolutionary feature that will let you stop the vehicle in front of a store, get out, and let the vehicle go hunt for a parking spot itself. There were even leaks that mentioned owners’ would have three parking spot options when using Park Seek. However, this new ‘Tap to Park,’ appears to be a slightly watered-down version of the original vision, that removes the ability for the vehicle to travel autonomously around the parking lot looking for a spot.
The recent deployment of FSD version 12 to Tesla employees is a significant milestone. This version improves by reducing reliance on human-written code and increasing the system's dependence on neural networks trained with real-world driving footage. Such advancements are crucial for successfully implementing "Tap to Park."
It’s possible that “Tap to Park,” is a transitioning step toward the original Park Seek vision. Park Seek has the ability to significantly change urban environments and high-density areas where parking is often challenging.
It is interesting to note the timing of this Musk hint on X. Tesla enthusiast Sawyer Merritt posted about the need for 360º views. Still, Whole Mars Catalogue called the feature “irrelevant” in a world with cars that drive themselves. This comes from a Holiday Update that didn’t meet expectations. Perhaps there is another update under the tree? Or, it may be another year away. Insert your two-week joke here.
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Tesla software update 2024.44.3 has started rolling out to customers in larger waves recently and it brings several new features - including Actually Smart Summon to Europe and the Middle East, as well as improvements to Autopark. But that’s not all, it also adds a new Blind Spot Monitoring feature to the new Model 3, and potentially the Cybertruck, but that’s still to be determined.
We previously covered the Blind Spot Warning While Parked as part of our preview notes for update 2024.44, but now that it's going out to customers, it's time to see it in action.
If the vehicle’s door open button is pressed, and a vehicle or object is near or incoming, the vehicle’s Blind Spot Warning Light (2024 Model 3 and Cybertruck) will illuminate, an audible tone will ring and the door won’t open. A message will also be displayed on the center displaying, letting driver’s know why the door didn’t open.
Pressing the button a second time will allow you to override the warning and open the door normally, providing a way to get out in case you just parked close to a nearby vehicle or obstacle.
The object detection for this new feature includes cars, pedestrians, cyclists, and other objects - like things including traffic cones, bollards, strollers, and other large obstacles that FSD and vision-based Autopark detect during normal operation. Of note - this only works for the front two doors. Thanks to X user Max, who did some testing for us, It does not work for the rear passenger doors.
Optional Feature
The feature is optional - it’ll be enabled by default for safety, but if you need to enable or disable it, you can do so under Controls > Safety. For now, the feature is only available on the 2024 Model 3, but we expect it to roll out to the Cybertruck at least. However, there’s no reason why it can’t be added to other vehicles as well, minus the small red dot. We expect Tesla to eventually add this feature to all Tesla vehicles, but it’s currently not a part of update 2024.44.
Enhauto’s S3XY Buttons & Commander
If that’s not enough safety and vision for you, Enhauto, the makers of the popular S3XY Buttons and Commander recently put out a new software update for the 2024 Model 3, which makes some fantastic use of the ambient lighting.
With Enhauto’s solution, users are able to tie their ambient lights to Autopilot use, turn signals or even if a vehicle is their blind spot. Check out the video below for this awesome implementation, where the ambient lights turn red when another vehicle approaches.
Maybe Tesla will integrate something like this into a future update? We’ve been hoping for more customizability with their ambient lighting - it's an easy safety win and a demonstration of Tesla’s do-more-with-less attitude.
I look forward to @enhauto updates more than Tesla...
Ambient light effects....
I set default color to white. Blinks green on turn signals Turns blue on FSD activation Yellow if someone in blind spot Blinks red if turn signal on and blind spot activity detected.
The feature is now possible thanks to what Wes Morrill, Cybertruck’s lead engineering, points out is a huge rewrite of Tesla’s Trip Planner, which not only makes it much more accurate but will now allow users to choose their arrival charge percentage.
More Accurate Trip Planner
When you navigate to a destination, your Tesla will automatically calculate when, where, and how much you need to charge. While the process seems straightforward, Tesla deserves a lot of credit for creating a simple user experience because a lot goes into accurately determining this information.
Tesla has to calculate many moving pieces in order to accurately predict when and where you should stop. First, it needs to consider your driving efficiency and wind direction, terrain elevation, traffic, vehicle speed, and ambient temperature. It also needs to predict the best Superchargers to stop at, taking into account congestion and charger speed.
This morning, in response to Dan Burkland, Wes shared that Tesla had significantly rewritten the backend portion of Trip Planner. These improvements, made by several engineers, were designed to improve Trip Planner’s accuracy and open the door to future features.
It sounds like these changes are mostly server-side, so thanks to their OTA connection, more accurate predictions should be available to all vehicles—no vehicle update is required.
Arrival State of Charge
Along with Tesla’s improvements to Trip Planner, Wes also stated that these improvements allow for a popular feature request — the ability to select your desired charge level at arrival.
Up until now, Tesla’s Trip Planner tried to get you to your destination as quickly as possible, which usually meant arriving with a low state of charge.
While this was fine if you have a charger at your destination, it’s not great if you don’t, or it could be even worse if there are no chargers nearby.
Max de Zegher said on X that he has heard the requests for a selectable arrival state of charge. Wes later clarified this by saying that these improvements to Tesla’s Trip Planner now allow for additional features to be added, such as “desired arrival charge.”
Actually trip planner got a huge rewrite on the back end. I had a great conversation with one of the engineers working on this over a morning run a few weeks back, it's pretty neat. The rewrite also unlocks additional features, like desired arrival charge.
Given that Max de Zegher’s comments came last night and Wes Morrill commented this morning, this feature request likely won’t arrive with the upcoming Holiday Update. Tesla actually hinted at such a feature being added in their last app update, so it does seem like they’ve already planned for it.
Although ‘Arrival State of Charge’ was on our wishlist for the Holiday Update, it looks like it may arrive soon after the holidays.
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