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Summon Why ?

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I am puzzled to find valid scenario for which I would want to summon the car, what are your guys' scenarios where you find this useful ?

I get that it is very cool, no question about that but

If I park in the driveway, then I don't see the point. I guess I may want to move the car to the garage at night. But since it requires me to be aligned with the garage and be physically present, it has a lot of pre requisites.

If I park in my garage, then I am in the car already, since it can only handle straight parking, I can do it myself. I really can, and with les steps, just as safe.


My only scenario (being a dad of 3, is that in a cramped garage, I might want to get the car out before getting in to prevent banging the doors on bikes and such.

Thoughts ?
 
Yep, this my last scenario, the only one I can see. But in this case, I'll be paranoid of what the others will do to get in their car. squeeze in and dent my doors ?
I'll probbaly park elsewhere not to worry :)

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Lloyd:
You could, but you can't :)

I am puzzled in the current form.

BTW, once your car can do your scenario, then you don't need your own car anymore. Juts a fleet of cars, you summon one, and you get where you want.
 
Like elon said, i think this is just baby steps. Kinda like TACC. I know in my garage o squeeze both cars tight, so it will come in handy when i get my tesla. But more so that just parking i think future updates will make it that much more useful, eg its raining and your coming out of the mall or something, car can pull right up all warmed up and you hop in.
 
I am puzzled to find valid scenario for which I would want to summon the car, what are your guys' scenarios where you find this useful ?

I get that it is very cool, no question about that but

If I park in the driveway, then I don't see the point. I guess I may want to move the car to the garage at night. But since it requires me to be aligned with the garage and be physically present, it has a lot of pre requisites.

If I park in my garage, then I am in the car already, since it can only handle straight parking, I can do it myself. I really can, and with les steps, just as safe.


My only scenario (being a dad of 3, is that in a cramped garage, I might want to get the car out before getting in to prevent banging the doors on bikes and such.

Thoughts ?

There's not a lot of scenarios but here's a few:

1. Parking in a tight garage where there's little clearance for doors to open.
2. Coming home with passengers and dog; pull up in driveway let the kids and wife go in, put the dog in the yard and summon car in garage
3. Super Charger, back in between two Tesla's (no worry about door dings there)
 
I'll give you three. I'm sure there are more.

1. This first scenario is one that I lived through every day for many years. I had a narrow garage and an infant (which then grew into a toddler and was succeeded by another infant). Because the infant was in a car carrier that snaps into the car seat base, I couldn't get the car door wide enough to get him into the car without seriously pulling the car to one side of the garage or risking significant damage to the door. So every day I would pull the car out into the driveway to load them up. And coming home, I took them out in the driveway, got back in, and parked. Even now, the front door is too wide to open safely in the narrow garage. So again, my wife always gets out of the car in the driveway.

For the infant(s), summon allows me to keep my toddler corralled as the car backs out of the garage, then I can load them up. Otherwise, I have to get into the car, back the car out, then come back to get the kids. Likewise, coming home from a family trip somewhere I can unload everyone in the driveway, then send the car into the garage without having to get back into the car. Yes, I have to plug/unplug the car in these scenarios, but it's still useful.

2. Another example is if you live in perhaps a condo/townhome or are parking in a parking garage in which there are columns on each side of a parking space, making opening the door risky as far as door dings are concerned. (Or impossible if it's a really narrow space.

In this case you can park in front of the space, summon the car into the parking space, and you're done--no contorting or worry about hitting a column.

3. I've already gone out to do some errands in the morning, and parked the car back in the garage but didn't plug in. (Happens if I anticipate going out later, or if I'm not in the mood to charge that weekend) :). Maybe I'm outside already, or I have a bunch of stuff to take somewhere and don't want to drag it into the cramped garage, or it's just more convenient for me to go outside. I can summon the car from outside the garage door, even if it's closed.
 
I am puzzled to find valid scenario for which I would want to summon the car, what are your guys' scenarios where you find this useful ?

I get that it is very cool, no question about that but

If I park in the driveway, then I don't see the point. I guess I may want to move the car to the garage at night. But since it requires me to be aligned with the garage and be physically present, it has a lot of pre requisites.

If I park in my garage, then I am in the car already, since it can only handle straight parking, I can do it myself. I really can, and with les steps, just as safe.


My only scenario (being a dad of 3, is that in a cramped garage, I might want to get the car out before getting in to prevent banging the doors on bikes and such.

Thoughts ?

You obviously don't want to squeeze into a parking space and risk getting your doors dinged. But what happens when you are being a good citizen, parking normally and someone comes in later on and parks right next to you? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to just summon your car and not have to squeeze into it between you and the pig parker?

Additionally, what if there is a perfect spot in a parking garage right next to a wall, cement post, etc. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to park RIGHT next to it and leave plenty of space on the other side to reduce the risk of a door ding?

I'm sure there are others, but these are just 2 examples off the top of my head :)
 
Todd's #2 is actually a very good reason for me, too. I have wooden columns in my garage, and they don't hinder my front door, but I can't open the back door on the Driver's side when it's in the garage. But, if I summoned it just a few feet (not all the way out of my garage, since my driveway is steep and curves) I could get stuff into the back seat without getting in the car first.

I sadly never actually thought of that, but I probably would have come up with it the next time I wanted to put something in the backseat...Maybe.

IMG_2788.JPG
 
Aside from pulling out of tight spaces, or pulling in to a tight garage, I don't see much point right now.

The car doesn't plug itself in, so the idea of getting out of the car in the driveway, watching it open your garage door, pull in, park itself, and close the garage, only for you to then have to go in to that same garage and plug it in, is kind of silly.

Now, when you can summon your car from a parking garage to pick you up in front of the building...that will be awesome. NY to LA and all that is great and everything, but let's be practical: I'm not going to put 3k miles on my car and wait 3 days for it to arrive instead of renting a car at the airport.
 
Todd's #2 is actually a very good reason for me, too. I have wooden columns in my garage, and they don't hinder my front door, but I can't open the back door on the Driver's side when it's in the garage. But, if I summoned it just a few feet (not all the way out of my garage, since my driveway is steep and curves) I could get stuff into the back seat without getting in the car first.

I sadly never actually thought of that, but I probably would have come up with it the next time I wanted to put something in the backseat...Maybe.

View attachment 107989

You're going to have to enable "allow narrow spaces" to get it to work but this is a perfect example of a good use of summoning.
 
I fly to different locations. If I could SEND my car there in advance, then I would have transportation on my arrival.
I don't get this. How far in advance would you have to send it when you when travel by plane when it is several times faster than car travel? What would you do in the meantime without a car?

i like the idea, just don't get the physics of it.
 
Largely, I think it's just about the name and having it on your phone.

There is just something really cool about SUMMON even if the hardware simply isn't there to support anything other than going forwards and backwards.

I can definitely see it being useful for someone with a very specific use case. Like parking it into a garage that's really too small for the car. That's probably the most common one.

Will I use it? Most definitely in the following scenario's.

1.) When I realize I screwed up and parked too far one way. Controlling the car remotely makes it look like I meant to do that.

2.) When someone parks way too close for comfort. Why squish in when you can just have it back out a bit?

3.) When I want to play me vs. the computer. I'm getting the feeling it does a better job of parking in my garage than I do. I can't let this be. I have to beat it. It seems pretty exact in the tires to wall alignment measurement.

4.) When it's a little tight for comfort. Hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I say this as not being the type to ever park really close to someone. But, we have to accept we have a big car and there are places that just don't give us much room. Sometimes you just gotta get out of the spaceship and look.

5.) When I have to open my cabinet in front of the Tesla to get some tool out. Pretty easy just to have it backup a few ft.

6.) Making youtube videos. DUH!!
 
If 7.1's Summon is a baby step, then I'm interested in what comes after the baby step. The 7.1 Summon? Not so much.

Elon clearly believes what comes after the baby step is autonomous, unmanned driving: your car is "summoned" from one place to another, perhaps down the road, or across the country.

Okay, but here's my thing: if EVER there were compelling reason to add more cameras and full-time video recording to the car, it'd be between now and the more compelling, ambitious version of Summon that is to come. The car desperately needs a black box, with fulltime 4-sided HD video running, not only for security when the car's unattended, but especially while it's driving.

We've seen countless topics in this forum about accidents and security incidents where cameras came in handy. Tesla should be building this into the car as a standard feature: cameras built seamlessly into the surface of the left and right sides of the car (we can debate ideal placement). They've already got cameras in facing front and back. So add a terabyte or three of storage somewhere deep in the car, and a password-protected way over wifi to pull down or interactively access the video as needed (including from the Tesla smartphone app).

If and when Tesla comes out with such a feature will be the time I just might have to turn in my ancient, clunker 2013 Model S for a new version.