Don’t whistle for your Tesla yet!
Tesla has delayed the “smart summon” feature, which it claimed would be on its cars by now—and, with that delay, has also pushed back a $1,000 price increase for the “self-driving” package.
Elon Musk, head of Tesla, had claimed that the feature would be available in mid-August, but it’s been delayed by around one or two months, as it was in November 2018, the first time he announced that it would be around “next month.” (It’s always next month in Elon’s world.)
For that matter, Musk had predicted full autonomous self-driving by 2017, back in 2015. It’s still the same distance away—around two years. Even as late as this April, Musk said self-driving would be ready by the end of 2019. It makes one wonder if his plan to terraform Mars, using that safest of all technologies, nuclear bombs, will be pushed back (after four years, he has actually changed his years-long obsession with this plan, which would involve sending out hundreds of nuclear bombs on rockets; the new replacement plan is somewhat less dangerous but still highly unlikely given current technology).
The “smart summon” feature would bring your car to you in a public parking lot, at speeds up to five miles per hour. Based on Timothy B. Lee’s article in ArsTechnica.
Clark Westfield grew up fixing up and driving past-their-prime American cars, including various GM and Mopar V8s. He has ghostwritten auto news for the last few years, and lives in Farmingdale, New York.
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