--- title: "Smart Summon Keeps Causing Teslas to Crash" description: "Smart Summon is a technologically impressive feature, and it works most of the time, but it also appears to have caused several fender benders already." date: "2019-10-15" modified: "2019-10-15" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/smart-summon-teslas-crash" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Tesla" tags: - "elon musk" - "self driving" - "tesla" - "the digest" --- # Smart Summon Keeps Causing Teslas to Crash ![Smart Summon is a technologically impressive feature, and it works most of the time, but it also appears to have caused several fender benders already.]() *\Image: Walter Bichler via Pixabay/Tag Hartman-Simkins\* ## Smart Summon Remember Smart Summon, the much-hyped Tesla feature that lets cars maneuver through parking lots autonomously? It finally [rolled out last month](), and *Ars Technica* just released a [deep dive]() into how Tesla drivers are using the new feature. It's a mix of good and bad news — the feature is technologically impressive, and it works most of the time, but it also appears to have caused several fender benders already. ## Body Work In [one video clip]() that *Ars* dug up, a Tesla Model S using Smart Summon scrapes into the edge of a garage door, and another driver [reported a similar garage accident](). Yet another driver [posted photos]() of a Model S that drove into a pole in a parking structure. In another [worrisome clip](), a Model 3 using the feature pulled into a travel lane, forcing another vehicle to "slam on the brakes." ## Road Ahead It's difficult to contextualize the risk of Smart Summon. On the one hand, there's no question that it's impressive tech — and it's strategically sound for Tesla to roll out limited self-driving functionality before making an entire system more widely available, as CEO Elon Musk has [promised to do]() by the end of 2020. On the other hand, though, parking lots are already [dangerous enough]() without Tesla using them to test unproven tech. **READ MORE:** [I watched over 100 Tesla Smart Summon videos—here’s what I learned]() \[*Ars Technica*\] **More on Tesla:** [*Elon Musk: Tesla Is Making An “Armored Personnel Carrier”*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()