Musk provides an update on Tesla's future Park Seek feature
Tesla
In the ongoing pursuit of fully autonomous vehicles, Elon Musk continues to push the boundaries, with Tesla once again proving its dominance in the electric vehicle industry. Following recent social media engagement with Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV), the tech titan shared updates regarding the imminent upgrade of Tesla's Smart Summon and Reverse Summon capabilities.
Musk took to Twitter to address speculation and confirmed Smart Summon and Reverse Summon would receive significant updates soon, saying "major update coming in a few months." Tesla was aiming to initially release 'Actually Smart Summon' in late 2022. Musk reaffirmed that version 11.4.1 incorporates "major architectural improvements," promising to elevate FSD, and parking features play a role in that program.
The significance of these improvements should not be underestimated. By enhancing these features, Tesla is improving the overall safety and convenience of the autonomous driving experience. With AI managing everything from video inputs to control outputs, the result would be a car capable of making nuanced decisions, similar to a human driver, but with machine precision.
Anticipating the Advent of a New Era in Driving Convenience
Musk's statement about the upgrade alludes to a more mature, advanced FSD architecture, which may hint at an accelerated timeline toward the goal of fully autonomous vehicles. Although a specific release date was not given, Tesla enthusiasts are on the edge of their seats, eagerly anticipating the upcoming update.
This latest announcement from Musk also underscores the tech magnate's unwavering commitment to keeping Tesla at the forefront of the electric vehicle market. As the world looks forward to this new era of driving convenience, one thing is for sure: Tesla's Smart Summon and Reverse Summon are about to get smarter than ever.
Tesla recently launched 2024.26 to employees, and this update is packed with so many features, that we may as well call it the Summer Update.
The update has been pushed to “wave 1” employee testers, who usually receive feature updates ahead of time to test for bugs and other issues.
This update has brought some hotly requested features, so let’s go over some of them in detail.
Updated Climate Screen
There is a redesigned climate control panel, which will allow users to “select their comfort settings with ease”. We haven’t seen any images of the updated climate control panel just yet, but we’re scheduling to be built in and have all features on one screen instead of having the front and back seats separated.
Fan Speed Adjustment during Phone Calls
On 2024.26, with climate controls on Auto, fan speed may automatically lower to reduce the sound of ambient noise during a phone call. A similar feature was previously introduced last year in 2023.26, so we expect this to be an improvement to the same feature.
Navigate to Sub-Destinations
As part of the bigger navigation updates coming soon, Tesla has added another feature that uses the updated Google Places API. You will now be able to navigate to sub-destinations, including specific terminals at airports.
This is a change that will be absolutely necessary for Robotaxi but is also extremely helpful for drivers trying to figure out the monstrous interchanges and signs that most modern airports have. Hopefully, this integration continues to be expanded, and we receive additional sub-destinations such as specific parking lots or floors for parking garages, enabling users to park their vehicles as close as possible to the relevant mall or building entrance.
The sub-destination menu mockup preview
Not a Tesla App
Schedule Charge & Conditioning
With the newly revamped climate menu, Tesla is adding features that have been requested for quite some time. This includes the ability for more granular control of scheduled charging and preheating/precooling options – including scheduling one-off or specific days and times of the week for charging or vehicle conditioning. And it’s all location dependent!
This same feature will also arrive in the Tesla app, which means users will be able to manage all their locations, charge start and stop times, and climate start times as needed.
More Music Services, Games, Weather and More
Music and Weather
Tesla also added a few other awesome features to this update, including YouTube Music and Amazon Music, as well as an updated Weather widget, featuring a weather report and Air Quality Index. Read about it here.
Parental Controls
Tesla has also added Parental Controls to its feature package – focused on safer driving by limiting vehicle top speed, and acceleration, as well as enforcing safety features. Read about the details on this one here.
Games
Tesla has updated some of the games in the Arcade, including an update for Battle of Polytopia and Vampire Survivors, two of its most popular games. Additionally, support has been added for TeslaMic, which works with the updated Caraoke Mode. The TeslaMic may also soon become available for purchase in North America when this update goes to customers – if it matches the Chinese store price, it will cost approximately $160 USD ($220 CAD).
Zoom Meetings
With this release, Zoom meetings will now resize to full screen when the car enters Park, or default to full screen if the car is already parked.
Additionally, you’ll now be able to log in by scanning a QR code on a device that’s already logged into Zoom! That’s a feature we hope comes to more of Tesla’s third-party integrations.
Release Date
Given that it just went to wave 1 employees today, and will most likely need some minimum bug fixing, this could be at least a week or two before it hits customer vehicles. If you’re on the FSD branch, don’t expect to receive this update for a while, as people on FSD V12.3.6 (2024.14.X), are waiting for FSD V12.4.2 on 2024.15.10.
In Tesla update 2024.26, which is now in employee testing, Tesla is launching a set of parental controls. The parental controls allow you to limit certain vehicle options for teens or other drivers.
The new restricted controls are focused on safer driving. They will limit the vehicle's top speed, acceleration, enforce safety features and even notify you if the vehicle is driven late at night.
Reducing Speed & Acceleration
One of the biggest features of the new parental controls is the ability for you to set a maximum speed and reduce the vehicle's acceleration. Tesla already included a max speed option that could be enforced in Valet Mode, but with this update, it could now be enforced for other drivers as well. Once a profile is tagged as a restricted driver, then they will need to enter a PIN code to modify or turn off the max speed. You will also be able to limit the acceleration mode to Chill, meaning that the vehicle's horsepower and torque are limited.
Enforcing Safety Features
With parental controls, the owner could also force specific safety features to remain on. These features include Speed Limit Warning, Automatic Emergency Braking and Forward Collision Warning. Although these features aren't a nuisance, parental controls prevent them from being turned off accidentally.
Notifications When Driving at Night
The last feature Tesla is adding to parental controls in update 2024.26 is the ability for the vehicle's owner to receive notifications if the vehicle is driven past a certain time. For example, if you set a curfew of midnight, then you'll receive a notification if the vehicle starts driving past this time.
Set Up Parental Controls
You'll be able to set up parental controls through the Tesla app or in the vehicle. In the vehicle, navigate to Controls > Safety and scroll to Parental Controls.
In the Tesla app, the feature is expected to be under the Security & Safety section, where you can already limit the top speed.
Any driver profiles that are limited will have a "training wheels" icon next to the driver's name.
Beyond Teen Drivers
It's possible that the new restricted profiles may also be able to useful if you rent your vehicle on Turo or another rental service as well. While you may not want to receive notifications for night driving, you may want to prevent drivers from going over 100 MPH, or from turning off important safety features.
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Tesla Android Project enables you to run Android apps in your Tesla. The platform is Open Source and you can deploy it on your own Raspberry Pi 4. Consider supporting the initiative by donating or purchasing the Compute Module 4 Bundle that delivers the best experience. Get $20 off by using the code: NotATeslaApp
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