Elon Musk has confirmed on X that Actually Smart Summon, will be going to wide release next week. Let’s take a look at what that means in the context of Tesla updates – because we know for sure it won’t be on every single vehicle next week.
Actually Smart Summon
The new feature set of Actually Smart Summon is fairly broad, and it's a feature that many have been waiting a long time for. So far, it's been completely unavailable on vehicles without ultrasonic sensors (USS) and has been more of a party trick on older vehicles that did have the sensors. It was pretty much only safely usable in straight lines and with direct supervision.
This updated version of Smart Summon uses Tesla Vision – just like AutoPark, to accomplish the task in a faster and safer manner. You’ll be able to summon your vehicle from its parking spot to another location or have it come directly to you.
Wide Release
Wide release will include hardware 3 and AI4 vehicles alike – as some early access HW3 testers have already received update 2024.27.20 with FSD 12.5.3 and Actually Smart Summon. As a reminder, in order to be able to use Actually Smart Summon, you’ll need to be subscribed to or own FSD and be in North America at this time. It’ll eventually be available to users with Enhanced Autopilot, when FSD 12.5 and Actually Smart Summon become part of the regular feature releases.
This wide release will come in gradual, small waves at first. These small waves serve as a test pool for Tesla to ensure that the update is safe to install on a wider pool of vehicles. After that, it’ll go out in larger waves. Once large waves start getting pushed out, it takes approximately a week for most users to receive the update.
Expect Tesla to start rolling out update 2024.27.20 with Actually Smart Summon next week, and if everything goes well, waves will continuously get larger and most users will have it about a week later. Unfortunately, if there are issues found with Summon or FSD 12.5.3, there will be a delay while Tesla issues a patch.
Other Regions
This release is only going out to North America for the time being – as it is only available on the primary FSD release branch. Eventually, it will be released to users with EAP in North America, as well as other regions.
This will happen when Tesla bundles FSD V12.5 with its feature updates, which will likely happen later this year. At the moment, Tesla is still bundling FSD V12.3.6 with its newest feature release update, 2024.32. So for those waiting for vision-based Actually Smart Summon in other regions, you’ll likely be waiting at least a month before it hits the regular feature branch.
We’re still waiting for Park Seek and Banish Autopark, but seeing Actually Smart Summon finally show up, including for hardware 3 vehicles is exciting. September is going to be a month filled with good Tesla news, including the Cybertruck getting FSD and all the other news that Tesla announced for September.
Tesla’s upcoming Home Wireless Charging Pad – the so-called “Project Garfield,” will get special Autopark support. Vehicle backup cameras will be able to locate the Wireless Charging Pad and then Autopark the vehicle in the best spot for the charging session to begin.
This information comes from Gizmodo China, who found this information from a reputable local source. We previously looked into Tesla’s Wireless Charging Patents in-depth and how Tesla intends to make this a simple and easy-to-use system, but one that’s also fairly high performance.
Automatic Docking
Similar to your robotic vacuum automatically docking to charge, eventually, your Tesla will be able to automatically locate your Home Wireless Charging Pad, and then maneuver itself into the perfect spot to take advantage of the highest charging speeds with the least energy leakage.
Automatically docking the vehicle is a fantastic solution to the woes of Wireless Charging, where even minor misalignment creates heat and wastes lots of energy. This fixes that issue at the vehicle level, so owners won’t have to move their wireless charging pads under the vehicle or move their vehicle around to find the perfect spot on their own.
In combination with Tesla’s patent to automatically adapt to variations in wireless charging layouts and systems, it seems that Tesla will be able to adapt to most circumstances that previous wireless EV charging companies were having difficulties with. Tesla will be able to vary the coil induction across its Wireless Charging Pad to “steer” or aim the wireless charging at different parts of the inductive coil inside the vehicle, enabling them to reduce heat, reduce waste energy, and accommodate variances in how vehicles line-up with the Wireless Charging Pad.
This feature may be limited to owners or subscribers of Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, which come with AutoPark as a standard feature. It could also be a software-level feature that’s enabled when a Home Wireless Charging Pad is detected nearby—which could also be an excellent option. We don’t know how Tesla plans to implement this just yet, but it will be very cool.
While we expect Tesla’s upcoming Robotaxi to feature the first Wireless Charging tech inside an EV, the Cybertruck already has the connectors for it and is ready to be retrofitted with the induction coils in a future update. The upcoming Model Y Juniper may also bring Wireless Charging en-masse to EVs.
We’re super excited to hear more about Tesla’s Home Wireless Charging Pads, as they’ll add even more convenience to owning a Tesla.
Rendering of what Tesla's integration could look like
@dkrasniy
Tesla is adding support for Smart Child Seats in an upcoming update. Greentheonly, who typically decompiles and analyzes Tesla’s software updates, found references to smart car seats in update 2024.32. Tesla will sometimes release code in a software update that isn’t exposed to end users. There could be various reasons for this, such as Tesla wanting to collect data and running the feature in shadow mode, which is often the case with features like Park Assist, Autopark, or Autopilot changes.
Tesla also has the capability to turn on a certain feature in a remote configuration, letting them enable or disable the feature at their discretion. Whatever the case, Tesla appears close to releasing support for these new car seats that help alert parents of potential dangers.
Smart Child Seats
The Smart Child Seat in the preview image is the Babyark Convertible Car Seat, which retails for approximately $1,200 USD. In the code of Tesla’s update, they specifically refer to an “ISOFIX” base. ISOFIX is a standardized car seat fitting system that automatically locks onto a car seat.
The Babyark comes with a slew of smart features, including real-time notifications, buckle alerts, status notifications, and approximately how much time your baby has spent in the seat. Additionally, the Babyark can remind owners of reconfiguring the seat as your child grows. One of the key features of Babyark is a forgotten child alert – which prevents parents from leaving their child in the car.
At this point, we’re not quite sure exactly how many of these smart features will be integrated into Tesla’s UI, but most likely the forgotten child alert will be integrated, as well as possibly a means to automatically recognize when an ISOFIX style seat is installed. Currently, child seats need to be manually marked in the UI – which will dismiss the seatbelt indicator for that seat.
Tesla has time and time again placed a huge focus on safety features, and this upcoming support for smart child seats is another interesting integration to help ensure that parents can keep their children safe. And when they grow up – you can use Tesla’s parental controls to ensure that they drive their Tesla in a safe manner.
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