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Tesla Model S Software Updates Lets Car Park Itself With No One Inside It (bgr.com)

Posted by timothy on from the bwa-ha-ha dept.

An anonymous reader writes with a link to this article at Boy Genius Report about a software upgrade now hitting Tesla owners, which begins: Tesla earlier today began pushing out version 7.1 of its software to Model S and Model X owners and, suffice it to say, it's a doozy of a software update. While we'll get to the full changelog shortly, we first wanted to highlight a feature called Summon which enables users to park their cars without having to be inside it. Conversely, it also lets Tesla owners summon their cars that already happen to be parked.

18 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Beta by 110010001000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The feature is in Beta. Thats what I want: Beta software in my car. Here is a link to the release notes: http://www.teslamotorsclub.com...

  2. Doozy vs Duesy by gavron · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's not a "doozy" of an upgrade.

    Duesy is short for Duesenberg, a car so awesome it could only be a Duesy.

    Ehud

  3. It has begun! by penguinoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wonder who'll get in trouble when the car has an accident while auto-parking?

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    1. Re: It has begun! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No, the switches had a fault where an undocumented position existed, outside of ACC, LOCK, RUN, and START. That position was called "RUN with airbags and warning systems disabled". It was accessible through wear of the weak spring inside the cylinder, and a light tap from a driver's knee.

      As you can imagine, survivability during a head-on collision is markedly reduced when the car enters this mode, and this mode occurred when the driver was unlucky enough to bump the key while jostling during a collision.

    2. Re: It has begun! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The trend with autonomous vehicles is the manufacturer is culpable for anything that happens when the vehicle is in autopilot mode. The question in my mind is: does this mean the vehicle will auto-switch back to manual control when collisions are imminent? They shouldn't, but does a manufacturer have the balls to try to get away with such a stunt?

      A lesser version of this is refusing to switch to automatic when conditions are unfavorable, or a drunk driver trying to switch to autopilot right before crashing in to a playground, etc.

    3. Re: It has begun! by Teun · · Score: 2

      <quote>Software is never complete or bug free. Use at your own risk.</quote>
      Yeah right :)

      // A hello world program in C++

          #include<iostream>
          using namespace std;

          int main()
          {
              cout << "Hello World!";
              return 0;
          }

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    4. Re: It has begun! by Jeremi · · Score: 2, Informative

      Oh dear, missing newline in line 6:

      jaf$ g++ temp.cpp
      jaf$ ./a.out
      Hello World!jaf$

      Let me know where to file the bug report :)

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    5. Re: It has begun! by Lumpy · · Score: 2

      parallel parking is a problem for people because do not do it enough. If people stopped being lazy and went out and practiced parallel parking into 10 different spots around town each weekend then suddenly their proficiency goes up dramatically.

      Some it will not, but those people also have problems with going straight down the road safely. Plus they cant avoid that siren song of their phone begging for them to play with it and text their BFF OMG!

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    6. Re: It has begun! by Slick_W1lly · · Score: 2

      I can attest to this.

      I'm British and was a perfectly proficient parallel parker before I moved to 'merika. 20 years over here, and the ez-mode perpendicular parking has atrophied my skills such that.. when I was in NYC the other day and tasked with performing a parallel park.. I ended up with one wheel on the pavement... >_

  4. Teething pains are going to be a bitch. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The programmer in me says that you can't design infrastructure and situations for people's level of ability to deal with the unexpected, and then rely on strictly less able primitive AI in the same situations on the same infrastructure.

    I always visualise a busy car park with two self-driving cars both stopped with noses together, trying to get into the same parking space and unable to safely proceed, and traffic backed up out onto the main road trying to get in.
    Would that be the exact case that trips them up? Maybe not.
    Maybe it's the guy with a short trailer sticking into the otherwise eligible car space.
    Maybe it's unusually narrow and some idiot (or self driving car, same thing really) who can't read arrows on the car park concrete has gone down the wrong way and someone has to reverse through mixed car park traffic or nearly scrape other cars to resolve the situation.
    The point is, there will be some case it just can't handle without human supervision, resulting in it stopping in the middle of a place other people need to drive.

    Also, remember that even if you think of these situations, it is extraordinarily difficult to be sure that it won't be thrown off by variations of these situations that human brains lump together but it can't.

    1. Re:Teething pains are going to be a bitch. by whoever57 · · Score: 2

      Or it could park like a BMW driver.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  5. Re:Text has error in it... by zwede · · Score: 5, Informative

    If the update text has errors in it ( i.e. frunk instead of trunk, ref: http://www.teslamotorsclub.com... ), I hope the feature itself was better QA'd.....

    That's not a typo. "Frunk" is Tesla's term for the front trunk.

  6. Misleading Statement in Article by ebob · · Score: 2

    The linked article contains a misleading statement which is given as a quote: Autosteer is now “restricted to residential roads and roads without a center divider.” which implies that it can only be used on these type roads. Actually, the upgrade restricts driving on residential roads and roads without a center divider by limiting the maximum autopilot speed to 5 mph above the posted speed limit. So, quite a different spin. (Source Ver 7.1 release notes)

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  7. That's not really "parking" by hawguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The video shows the car moving up to 39 feet in a straight line to get out of a tight garage. That's not really "parking". A "real" autopark would be if I could get out of the car at the door to my office, then send the car to go park itself in the lot.

  8. In Seattle .... by PPH · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... we could just get out of our cars and have them drive endlessly around the block looking for a parking space.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  9. Valet Parking? by Art+Challenor · · Score: 2

    summon their cars that already happen to be parked.

    Who get's the $10 tip?

  10. Re: Automated car theft by qbast · · Score: 3, Funny

    New form of 'war driving': some unremarkable car drives slowly down the street and suddenly all Teslas parked nearby wake up and drive off somewhere.

  11. Nothing like this is worth the risk of OTA updates by ffkom · · Score: 2

    A machine easily capable of killing me (and others) by a mere unintended 5 change of direction while driving on a highway is certainly the least machine that I want to receive over-the-air updates at any time.

    Maybe Tesla is a little less profit-above-everything inclined than other companies at this time, but there's no reason to think it will stay like this. Just look how OTA-firmware upgrades have worked against owners of LG-TVs, PS3s and so on... one day, a pointy haired boss will decide to change Tesla car firmware to boost his profits, not your well-being.