Tesla’s summoning feature gets smarter—and a cheeky name

Musk, who is known for often being months or years off in his launch predictions, previously said the feature would debut by the end of September 2022, which passed without a single launch. He later hinted at another April 2023 deadline, but Tesla failed to deliver the update.

Two years after it was originally proposed, the improved summon feature is finally here, along with Dumb Summon, Tesla’s name for the options to only move your car forward and backward.

“Charge for the ride of your life, except, surprise! You are not in the car,” the company wrote in its release notes. “ASS (Actually Smart Summon) allows your vehicle to come to you or go to a place of your choosing, all on its own. It’s like magic, but with more technology and fewer wand movements.”

Drivers can use their Tesla mobile app, which now has an “Invoke” tab, to get a live feed from their car’s cameras. The tab will show two options: COME TO ME, which will have the vehicle automatically drive to your location, and GO TO TARGET, which allows you to set a different location for Tesla to drive you to.

To stop either command, users can simply release the button. Tesla notes that ASS and Dumb Summon should only be used in parking lots or driveways, and warned drivers to “remain alert.”

Although the original version of Summon was released in 2019, many people reported various problems and even crashes. While first impressions of the new version have been positive, with one driver tweeting that they were “super impressed”, it’s still far from the lofty goals Musk had previously predicted.

In 2016, Tesla’s CEO tweeted that in two years, he expected Summon to “work anywhere connected by ground,” meaning you could theoretically control the car across the country.

With the launch of Actually Smart Summon coming right on top of Tesla’s Robotaxi showcase in October, this fall could be when we start to see how close Musk’s vision for self-driving really is to becoming a reality — even if software- the one that finally launches comes with some compromises.