Tesla recently rolled out an update to its car's “summons” feature — which it calls Actually Smart Summon — and as a result, one Tesla owner is no longer able to use his car.
For years, Tesla has been touting the “samamon” feature, which allows owners to move their cars remotely.
It started with simple forward/backward motion, but then Tesla promised a “smart” summon that would be able to navigate parking lots, and even drive coast to coast on its own to pick you up from a parking lot. on the other side of the country.
Needless to say – and much like Tesla's famous Full Self-Driving feature – some of these features are not yet fully implemented. There was a smart call feature that worked for a while on cars equipped with radar, but when Tesla switched to seeing only autonomous functions, the feature disappeared for a while.
But in September, Tesla finally released the Actually Smart Summon, promising to finally bring the ability to drive remotely to cars, as long as they are in private space (parking lots, highways and the like).
The system has shown impressive utility so far, but is still limited to certain use cases (for example, I can't use it for the one thing I would use it for – changing the traffic from my driveway to the parking lot. the area in front of my house on an incredibly wide low-traffic road, both because it's a public road and because the system cannot manage the gentle slope of my driveway).
So while the system is often used as a party trick, there are still people who find legitimate uses for features like these and have come to rely on them — but in the case of a Nova Scotia Tesla owner, that trust has turned sour. with the latest update, which broke the plan and left his car stuck in its parking spot two weeks ago.
Tesla changed pricing, now the one owner car is stuck
We were contacted by Jamie, a Tesla owner in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with a simple photo showing his interesting parking situation, which he has been using successfully for the past four and a half years. In fact, he bought this car for this feature as it is the only way he can park, and he often gets comments from people wondering how he gets his car out of there.
All was well, until a week or two ago. When he got Tesla firmware version v12.5.4.1, something broke and his car won't start.
This version of the software has made changes to both the Actually Smart Summon and the old “Dumb” summon. The last one is the system Jamie used all the time.
Now, when he tries to use the function, he fails in any number of ways, since the car sees the walls that are too close and cancels the movement, even if he can visually confirm that the situation is safe. The car cycles through various error messages – “can't find clear lane,” “autopilot temporarily degraded,” “stopped due to unexpected error,” and the like. He was able to get it to move a certain amount from time to time, but estimated that it only worked one out of 20 or so tries, while it was usually 100% reliable.
Jamie said he tried contacting Tesla customer service three times, who were unable to offer help other than to suggest resetting the automatic “two-finger salute” software. They have not provided the ability to make the software revert to a working version of the software.
He also contacted the local service center – he was able to bring the car to it by opening the trunk and the whole car went inside until it reached the driver's seat, although his back was sick which made it difficult in this funny situation.
At the aid station – where he said they helped them a lot – they were able to confirm that there was a problem by stacking boxes next to the car, showing that it was not moving. But they could not provide a refund, nor did they provide a timeline for a potential fix.
So, he drove the car home, parked it, plugged it in, and left it there. Now, he's walking around instead of driving, though that won't always be an option as Nova Scotian winters begin. Street parking is also not an option, as Halifax often prohibits street parking at night when snow is expected, to allow for snow removal.
He can charge elsewhere in the city, but at level 2 that would require traveling to and from the charger, possibly at odd hours, or driving half an hour outside of the city to the nearest charger. Of course, the best case scenario would be to use his parking lot and charger as he has for the past four and a half years, until this “fix” is implemented.
Jamie figures that, while he's in good shape, among the millions of Tesla owners out there, there must be other owners who are seeing the same problems right now. While he would like to fix his own problem, he is concerned that other owners may be experiencing the same issue.
This isn't the first time Tesla has issued sudden changes that have affected parking. In 2022, Tesla abruptly removed ultrasonic parking sensors from cars, saying it would move to a park assist system only. This took about six months to roll out, and is still being developed over time, but it surprised some buyers who bought cars expecting this standard feature but didn't get it.
Electrek's Take
We at Electrek occasionally receive reports from individual customers with individual problems, but we do not always make articles for everyone, especially if there is another solution available. We usually like to wait for a pattern to develop.
But this was an interesting problem, and it brings up an important point: it highlights one of the problems with the release of software updates, especially when it comes to automatic driving, or any other device that people rely on: everything is fine again. It's nice to have a feature that works most of the time, but if people trust feature, you need to make sure it works all of them the time.
And this is a small default feature in the settings. But it shows the complexity of automated driving tasks, where in order to be accepted, systems need to be active not just most of the time, but all the time. A true, driverless, level 5 system needs to be completely reliable, even in “ideal” conditions – and we can't have software updates come and break performance when there's more at stake than a single parking spot.
And one last note, sometimes we can solve problems by emailing the automaker's communications department to ask them what's going on. I have used this method in the past, and the companies were able to take care of the customer's issue, solve the problem before it became a bad machine for them. Unfortunately, however, this is not possible with Tesla.
Charge your electric car at home using solar panels on the roof. Find a reliable and competitively priced solar installer near you EnergySagefor free. They have pre-tested installers that compete with your business, guaranteeing high quality solutions and 20-30% savings. It's free, no sales calls until you choose an installer. Compare personal solar quotes online and get guidance from unbiased energy advisors. Get started here. – advertisement*
FTC: We use auto affiliate links to earn income. More.