A mockup of what Tesla's upcoming 'Transfer Audio' feature will look like
Not a Tesla App
Without question, Tesla is the world's most innovative vehicle, although there's always room for improvement.
For example, when you're in the middle of an important phone call and as you open the door of your car, your phone connects to your vehicle and the call starts playing over the vehicle's speakers. Then, there's that awkward moment where the person on the other end of the call is trying to determine if they have been cut off. At the same time, you try to hurry to get into the car, or quickly try to transfer the call back to your phone. If this hasn't happened to you, count yourself lucky; for those who've fallen victim to the automatic transfer, the concerns of another instance may soon be a thing of the past.
Tesla plans to change how your phone connects in an upcoming update. Soon, when you're on an active phone call, the audio will now remain on your phone, even after you open your car door and your phone connects to the vehicle over Bluetooth.
When you're finally inside the vehicle, you can choose to transfer the phone call to the vehicle's audio system or dismiss the prompt, leaving the call's audio on your phone.
Bluetooth Troubleshooting
Until that happens, smartphone companies sometimes advise users to turn off Bluetooth to avoid calls being automatically picked up by paired devices such as automobiles. While that may work with most vehicles, Tesla owners rely on their smartphones to unlock and operate the car via Bluetooth.
Major Updates Are Coming
We don't have any details on when this improvement will be released, but we expect it to be available soon, possibly as soon as 2022.44, but it's now being tested and we expect it to be released this year.
There are several Tesla updates on the horizon. Full Self Driving Version 11 is expected to be available to everyone who has purchased FSD by the end of this year. In addition, it's believed the new Actually Smart Summon or ASS, will be included with Version 11. Those updates will get a lot of attention and likely overshadow this smaller improvement, but it is righting an inconvenience.
A Brief Bluetooth History
Let's take a quick look back at a technology that is now commonplace. It was Intel, Ericsson and Nokia who put aside competition and together developed the short-range radio technology in 1996. Bluetooth was a creative code name because King Harald Gormsson united Denmark and Norway in 958. He had a discolored dead tooth that earned him the nickname of Bluetooth.
Since the industry leaders were uniting on this technology, they used it as a temporary name. It was to be renamed RadioWire, but they needed more time to get the trademark done. The other option was PAN, which stood for Personal Area Networking, but there were too many PANs coming up in searches. Bluetooth started appearing in cars in 2000 and it was Chrysler who lead the way with incorporating the technology in it's vehicles.
Now, we appreciate the convenience of Bluetooth daily, and with a minor tweak by Tesla, King Harald Gormsson's namesake will be much more enjoyable.
As Tesla update 2024.44.3 continues to roll out, we’re seeing more features in this update. While the update doesn’t include many new feature, it either improves existing features or rolls out a feature to new regions. Actually Smart Summon is rolling out to Europe, although with more strict restrictions. AutoPark is also rolling out to the UK and several other countries for the first time, and we’re now seeing improvements to Autopark arriving in North America and Europe.
As Tesla’s 2024.44.3 update continues to roll out, more features in the update are being revealed. While this update doesn’t introduce many entirely new features, it does refine existing features or expand the reach of others.
Notably, Actually Smart Summon is now rolling out in Europe, albeit with stricter regulations. Vision-based AutoPark is debuting in the UK and several other countries, while North America and Europe are receiving updates that further improve Autopark’s functionality.
Improvements to Autopark
As part of the same update, Tesla is making a batch of improvements to Autopark in Europe and North America. In the release notes, Tesla states that Autopark is receiving performance and visualization improvements. Unfortunately, Tesla doesn’t go into more detail here, but it sounds like these improvements could be the faster and more accurate Autopark enhancements Ashok Elluswamy talked about earlier this year.
Those improvements are expected to make Autopark more reliable, let it pick spots faster, move faster into them, and also shift between forward and reverse faster. The improvements would also let the vehicle park in tighter spots than before, with more accurate vision.
We’ll have to wait and see how this improved Autopark compares to the current version.
Your vehicle's Autopark performance and visualizatons have been improved.
Autopark in the UK and Other Countries
Countries in Europe that previously didn’t have access to Vision-Based Autopark, including the UK, will now have access to the new Autopark for the first time with update 2024.44.3 and later. This includes countries such as the UK, Ireland and Malaysia.
While these countries are receiving Autopark, it’s not clear whether it includes the Autopark improvements that other regions are receiving. The release notes don’t include the Autopark Improvements section in these countries, but that could be due to Tesla simplifying the release notes for these countries that are receiving Autopark for the first time.
With Autopark finally introduced in these regions, it’ll be the first time vehicles without ultrasonic sensors are capable of Autopark. Vision-Based Autopark is far more reliable, faster, and easier to use in more situations than the older USS-based solution.
Tesla has finally released Actually Smart Summon for Europe and the Middle East, albeit with several major restrictions. However, it's definitely a first step towards unlocking autonomy in Europe.
Europe’s autonomy laws are governed under UNECE regulation R79, which regulates autonomous features and is extremely restrictive in how autonomy can be used and applied. For example, the previous revision (Rev 4) of R79 required drivers to approve, with physical action, every decision made by an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) feature.
Limited Actually Smart Summon
Under Rev 5 of UNECE R79, Actually Smart Summon can actually function, but only to a limited degree. Owners have to be within 6 meters (19.5 feet) of the vehicle at all times, making it barely more usable than Dumb Summon (can we coin the term Dummon?).
In addition, you can only travel a total distance (under the regulation) of 100 meters (328 feet) - which means you’d have to run beside the vehicle or be inside it, rendering it mostly useless. However, Tesla has, for some reason, limited the total summon distance to 15-20m (50 to 65 feet) of travel. These limits are in sharp contrast to the distance limits of A.S.S. in North America.
Getting UNECE R79 Updated
Tesla has been hard at work getting R79 repealed or updated to allow for further autonomy after running demos for senior politicians earlier in the year. Back in March, we reported that updating DCAS regulations in Europe would help get FSD approved - but that covered driver assistance, not autonomy. In fact, Tesla was testing FSD with validation vehicles as far back as February of this year, hinting that Supervised FSD may be getting close.
Tesla FSD Validation Vehicle seen in Munich, Germany 👀
While FSD has a clear path forward in Europe, semi-autonomous features like Actually Smart Summon and Banish don’t just yet. The updated DCAS regulations do not cover semi-autonomy or autonomy and require clear interfaces, guidelines, and controls for drivers to be informed and engaged at all times.
It’ll take another big swing for Tesla to get autonomy regulations changed to allow for more semi-supervised autonomy like Actually Smart Summon - much less fully autonomous products like the Robotaxi Network, Cybercab, and Robovan.
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