Tesla’s cars have moved one step closer to automation with a new ‘Smart Summon’ feature.
Delivered to the owners of the electric cars via a software upgrade, it allows them to call the vehicles remotely through a smartphone app.
It’s intended as a way for Tesla cars to leave parking spaces, navigate around obstacles and find their owners. Like an obedient puppy.
Naturally, videos have already started appearing online of people testing out the feature. In one case, a man decides to try out the obstacle-recognition software by attempting to run himself over with his own car.
Appropriately enough, his YouTube channel is called Dirty Tesla.
The car does stop when he walks right in front of it, although it comes perilously close to crushing his toes when he approaches from the blind spot.
Another user tweeted Tesla CEO Elon Musk to point out that Smart Summon wasn’t winning him any friends in the local car park.
So, @elonmusk – My first test of Smart Summon didn’t go so well. @Tesla #Tesla #Model3 pic.twitter.com/yC1oBWdq1I
— Roddie Hasan – راضي (@eiddor) September 28, 2019
Tesla points out that drivers are still responsible for their cars – even if they’re not, well, actually driving them.
‘You are still responsible for your car and must monitor it and its surroundings at all times and be within your line of sight because it may not detect all obstacles,’ explains the fine print on Tesla’s website.
‘Be especially careful around quick moving people, bicycles and cars.’
But even as Tesla continues to push the boundaries of autonomous cars, recent research suggests drivers aren’t yet ready to surrender control.
The AA (the British motoring association) found that while many people see benefits of driverless cars, the cultural attachment is stronger than technology.
They also say that trust remains a concern.
Only a quarter of drivers (23%) in a poll of 21,039 people indicated they would trust a vehicle to drive itself while they were in it.
AA president Edmund King has warned that technological pioneers should not just make fully autonomous cars their utopia without bringing drivers with them on the journey.
‘We shouldn’t underestimate the cultural importance of the car,’ he said. ‘We shouldn’t take a Luddite approach to new driverless car technology but must bring the consumers with us. Today, nearly two thirds (63%) would be lost without their car, more women (70%) say they would be lost without their car than men (59%) and two thirds still actually enjoy driving.’
‘Even with the projected growth of ride hailing, connected and driverless cars, almost half can never envisage a time when they might give up their car.’
Almost nine in 10 (87%) people expressed the most amount of concern over the possibility of situations coming up that were not anticipated by software programmers developing autonomous technology.
However, motorists appear to be embracing some technological advances, with 59% saying they desired adaptive cruise control and 58% wanting advanced automatic emergency braking.
‘The car has been pretty much the same for 100 years, but the next decade will see more change than in the previous 50 years,’ Mr King said. ‘There is no doubt technological advances can and will save lives and enhance mobility for the elderly, disabled and the young.’
‘The jury is still out on when, or if, the consumer will embrace the driverless car in the way they have grown to love driving their cars.’