Tesla lets Model S owners ‘call up’ their car with Autopilot

Tesla has expanded the self-driving features of its Model S, making it possible to have the car drive independently. This “summon” feature is included in a new version of the software sent to Model S owners.

The feature with which it is possible to recall the car is in software version 7.1 that was recently released. Tesla has not released much about the new software itself, but user experiences show that it is possible to have the car drive independently at the push of a button. There have been a number of videos from Model S owners showing, for example, how the car drives out of the garage on its own. Conversely, it is also possible to park the Model S again.

If you have a garage door that is compatible with HomeLink, you can have it open and close automatically in conjunction with the summon function. However, the driver must be within 12 meters of the Model S to be able to call the car. Summon can be turned on in the settings, and according to Tesla, it is still in beta. It is unclear whether software version 7.1 was immediately rolled out to all Model S users worldwide.

The new summon functionality is part of Autopilot, the self-driving software that Tesla previously released. This makes it possible to let the car drive completely independently on some roads. Because the company was criticized for the safety of Autopilot, a restriction was introduced with software version 7.1. A speed limit has been set that is 8 kilometers per hour above the legal limit. This should prevent drivers from driving dangerously fast while their hands are not on the wheel.