Tesla

Tesla Lays Foundation for Robotaxi Fleet in China with Smart Summon Release

Tesla-Smart-Summon-in-China

Tesla has released Smart Summon in China. Now Tesla owners who purchased the electric car maker's Full Self-Driving suite can enjoy seeing their cars drive up to them with no one in the driver's seat. Get ready for some Smart Summon reaction videos from China.

Tesla released Smart Summon in the United States in late September. China may be the first country outside the United States, where the FSD feature is available, to receive the feature. Smart Summon remains unavailable in Europe to date, partly due to restrictions in the government's regulations.

The following is Tesla’s description of Smart Summon in its V10 Update release notes:

“Smart Summon is designed to allow your car to drive to you (using your phone’s GPS as a target destination) or a location of your choosing, maneuvering around and stopping for objects as necessary. Like Summon, Smart Summon is only intended for use in private parking lots and driveways. You are still responsible for your car and must monitor it and its surroundings at times within your line of sight because it may not detect all obstacles. Be especially careful around quick-moving people, bicycles, and cars.”

The feature is essentially part of the electric car manufacturer's Full Self-Driving suite, which Tesla has big plans for in the future. In particular, Smart Summon will be useful for Tesla’s Robotaxi service. After all, the autonomous ride service will need to know how to pick up passengers and park without a driver.

The Model 3 and Y are expected to outsell Tesla’s previous vehicles. The all-electric sedan and crossover are the perfect cars to gather information for Tesla’s upcoing Robotaxi fleet. The Model 3 is equipped with Hardware 3, which is Tesla’s Full Self-Driving computer. Apart from that, all Model 3 units assembled in Gigafactory 3 will be sold with basic Autopilot already enabled. The same could happen when GF3 starts production and sales of the made-in-China Model Y.

Smart Summon has been gathering data from the United States over the past months since its initial release. Now it will get information from China as well. Europe may be the next country Smart Summon drops, adding to the data Tesla collects for its Robotaxi fleet.

Featured Image Credit: Tesla/YouTube

About the Author

Claribelle Deveza

Claribelle Deveza

Longtime writer and news/book editor. Writing about Tesla allows me to contribute something good to the world, while doing something I love.

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