Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla plans to release an update that will enable drivers to summon their vehicle remotely from further distances than before.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced via Twitter that the feature will work on all Tesla vehicles made in the past two years or that have Autopilot hardware version two or newer.
When the feature goes live, users will be able to call their car to their phone’s location remotely. The car will even follow like a pet if the user holds down the Summon button while moving, according to Musk.
Musk’s final tweet mentions that if the car is in your line of sight, you’ll be able to drive it like a giant RC car using your phone as a remote.
Also, you’ll be able to drive it from your phone remotely like a big RC car if in line of sight
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2018
All the features Musk tweeted about sound futuristic, but it’s unclear how safe each one will be and what exactly counts as “line of sight” for driving the car remotely.
Looking forward, in a reply to a tweet, Musk said a future version of Summon will allow Tesla vehicles to navigate open spaces and read parking signs so as to allow them to avoid parking tickets. This aspect of Summon is slated to come out next year, not in six weeks.
Electrek reports that users will need to be able to see their car to make this feature work.
This is a pretty substantial update since the existing Summon function only allows users to pull the car forward a few feet.
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