Tesla’s summon feature just got a lot smarter — and a cheeky new name

• Tesla has begun rolling out its “Actually Smart Summon” feature after multiple delays.
• Elon Musk has been predicting big things for Tesla’s summon feature since at least 2016.
• Now, drivers can use the Tesla app to control the car remotely in more ways, with options for “come to me” and “go to target.”

Tesla’s car lineup just got a cheeky upgrade with a dose of classic Elon Musk humor.

The company has finally begun rolling out its Actual Smart Summon feature — or ASS for short, as the company made sure to tell people — after numerous delays.

Musk, who is known for frequently being months or years off in his release timeline predictions, previously said that the feature would debut by the end of September 2022, which went by without any rollout. He later hinted at another deadline for April 2023, but Tesla again failed to deliver the update.

Two years after its initially proposed date, the upgraded Summon feature is here at last, along with Dumb Summon, Tesla’s name for the options to only move your car backward and forward.

“Buckle up for the ride of your life, except, surprise! You’re not in the car,” the company wrote in its release notes. “ASS (Actually Smart Summon) allows your vehicle to come to you, or head to a spot that you choose, all on its own. It’s like magic, but with more tech and less wand-waving.”

Drivers can use their Tesla mobile app, which now has a “Summon” 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 your Tesla to drive to.

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

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

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

With Actually Smart Summon’s release coming right at the cusp of Tesla’s Robotaxi showcase in October, this could be the autumn when we start seeing how close Musk’s vision for autonomous driving truly is to becoming a reality — even if the software that eventually launches arrives with some compromises.