Tesla’s Summon Feature is Being Revised for Extra Safety

Tesla has been hard at work perfecting the Model S, and one of the newest and most impressive additions allows drivers to park and retrieve their vehicles without actually sitting behind the wheel. Dubbed Summon, the feature is certainly practical, but sources suggest that it’s not exactly without its flaws, as a publication has recently noted a few safety-related issues. The problem is that Summon was designed to work using the Tesla smartphone app or through the car’s key fob, which means that the user can’t actually stop the car immediately in the event of an emergency, such as they keys or the smartphone being dropped by accident.

Furthermore, if the user would choose to exit the smartphone app on an iPhone 6s while the car was in motion, the vehicle would actually keep moving. It’s true that Tesla has implemented a series of fail-safes such as sensors that can detect obstacles, not to mention that the car stops immediately if someone touches one of its door handles. However, since the possibility of an accident still exists, the company has decided to revise the Summon feature and restrict its use to the smartphone app exclusively, which means that the key fob will only be able to stop the car but not drive it. For improved safety, Model S owners will have to keep their finger on the screen in order to keep the car moving, which eliminates the possibility of an accident if the device is dropped.