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Tesla's Improved Summon Feature Is Tested for Small Children Detection

Tesla's ambitions to become one of the first companies to offer autonomous cars might have received a dent lately when its summon featured was found to have some flaws.
Testing Tesla's summon detection systems 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
Namely, it was unable to detect small, low-lying objects in its path as it was crawling forward as instructed by its owner. That doesn't sound like such a big deal until you think about what can constitute a small, low-lying object. And when you realize it can be anything from Jewel, the family Yorkshire Terrier, to even your own child, things suddenly become a lot more serious than they first appeared.

Tesla thought so too and hurried to address the situation by issuing one of its updates. This changed the rules of the game a little by requiring the operator to be within ten feet of the vehicle (that's a little over three meters) and also forcing him to have his finger pressing the button at all times. This ensured that if the owner dropped the key fob or smartphone by accident after the summon had been initiated, it would stop automatically, thus preventing any potentially dangerous situations.

That's lovely, but does it really prevent a Tesla car from hitting an unaware child? Well, YouTube user and Tesla Model S owner KmanAuto decided to find out, and since there were no volunteers for the position of test dummy, he made use of what objects he could find around the house. A large, stuffed duck, a bucket, and even his own body provided eloquent enough materials to test the EV's sensors.

The title pretty much gave away the result of the test, but it's not all bad news. And, anyway, the summon feature, the way we see it, is only meant to be used when accessing the car is difficult, for some reason. Like when some idiot parks next to you and doesn't leave enough clearance to open the door. In these cases, you're always paying attention to your car as it moves and there's no risk of injury to others.

However, you would expect something as simple as detecting an obstacle in the way to work. After all, we've had parking sensors for years now, and they work perfectly well with both narrow and low objects. If Tesla should tinker with something, it is its sensors' ability. You should watch the clip for a more detailed analysis.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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